GERMANY has been strongly affected by the French movement, as in fact has been the whole of the Continent. Any person who can remember the state of art in the Fatherland twenty years ago will notice the great change now taking place. He need only revisit the country and wander through the great annual exhibitions held in the larger cities, such as Berlin, Munich, and Dresden. In 1878 the “Gazette des Beaux-Arts,” referring to the German school of painting, said: “There are one or two artists of the first rank, and many men of talent, but in other respects German painting is still upon the level of the schools which had their day amongst us thirty years ago; this is the solitary school of painting which does not seem to perceive that the age of railways and World Exhibitions needs an art different from that of the age of philosophy and provincial isolation.” Since that date, in the manner of viewing nature, in the choice of subject, in the style, composition, technique, and colour of pictures, the main trend of German art has been completely altered. Until quite recently Teutonic artists delighted in the allegorical. The output of fabulous monsters, fauns, unicorns, satyrs, was enormous. Every young painter turned his hand to the production of these fantastic mythological subjects. Happily a saner view of the mission of art has come over the land, and the fauns and satyrs are being gradually relegated to oblivion. From an absurd pseudo-classical style (the effect of teaching from men like Couture and Munkacsy), together with unlimited use of bitumen and black, a national school of painting has been evolved which follows “la peinture claire,” giving promise that in time it will travel, as regards purity of colour and brilliance of effect, far beyond the bounds Monet has restricted himself to. Work “en plein air” is the vogue, and no longer the exception, whilst the sun is recognised at his true worth in the universal scheme of nature. Hitherto King Sol has been disregarded, and his presence but rarely indicated in some low-toned sunrise, or a sunset effect—the conventional chrome-yellow band across a deep Prussian-blue hill distance. Following the lead of the artists, both critics and public are being gradually weaned from the love of black shadows, although it cannot be said that they are wholly converted. Still their education is in rapid progress, and the German people will soon be abreast of the times in matters artistic.
One man, Max Liebermann, has brought about this healthy state of things almost single-handed. A consideration of his lifework is of the highest importance and interest to all concerned either with the progress of German art or the movement of French impressionism, for Liebermann is a master, head and shoulders above all his colleagues. His artistic history is easy to trace. The greatest painters are always primarily attracted by the work of other great men. They copy the models of their choice, and, missing some of the peculiar qualities enshrined therein, gradually replace them in their own works with something equally fine. These fresh qualities will in their turn find admirers, and, fanning the zeal of newcomers, keep alight throughout the ages the sacred flame of art. If Delacroix borrowed from Constable, Manet borrowed from Delacroix, and Liebermann from Manet. In his turn, Liebermann has influenced a large and increasing number of young German and Dutch artists.
With his pre-eminent position as a representative German painter, Max Liebermann combines a commanding and active personality. More than any other man of his time, his work has provoked discussion and attracted attention from the commencement. During the last thirty years he has fought strenuously the battle of light in painting. Strongly influenced by Manet, Monet, together with Millet and the Barbizon school, he has succeeded in inculcating amongst his brother artists a love of actuality in subject, a desire to work direct from nature (contrary to that old method of painting in the semi-gloom of the studio from incongruous models in more or less correct costume), together with the simplification and purification of the palette. Liebermann has taught German artists to look at nature as it is, and not to represent it as seen through the veil of a deadening academic tradition; he has taught them that art does not consist in a minute finish, that there is no finality in nature, and that the last impression which a true work of art should convey is that of excessive industry.
THE COBBLERS · MAX LIEBERMANN
Max Liebermann was born in Berlin, July 29, 1849, the son of a wealthy merchant. At an early age he decided to become an artist, but the fulfilment of his wish was opposed by his father, who suggested a course of philosophy at the University of Berlin as an antidote. Young Liebermann joined the faculty of philosophy, but at the same time worked in Steffeck’s studio where he made quick progress. He assisted his master, we are told, in the battle picture Sadowa, painting guns, sabres, uniforms, and hands, with much approbation from Steffeck. He frequented the galleries and museums in preference to the class-rooms, and preferred to sketch in the streets and parks of Berlin rather than sit at the feet of a professor at the University. In 1869, with parental authority, he deserted philosophy altogether, and joined the Academy at Weimar, then in high repute as a school of art producing the regulation painters of orthodox pattern. Here he worked for three years under Thumann and Pauwels, beginning pictures in their style which were left unfinished. The petrified classicalism which reigned in Weimar was little acceptable to a youth who had keenly studied the life around him, and who had developed a strong love for natural effects as well as modernity in technique. These heretical tendencies were sternly repressed by his respectable and erudite teachers. At last Liebermann threw aside artificiality, and, quitting the circles of the conservative Academy, occupied himself in painting in the open air.
In 1873 he finished his first great picture, Women plucking Geese, now in the National Gallery, Berlin. It was more or less academic as to technique, and black tones predominated throughout in accordance with the fashion of the period. The subject brought the canvas into immediate notoriety, the picture was condemned as a gross vulgarity, and Liebermann was described as “the apostle of ugliness.” This hostile reception was entirely unexpected by the sensitive artist, who was much affected by it, and determined to leave Berlin for Paris.
Thirty years ago the bituminous method of Munkacsy was the most popular art in Germany, and influenced many of the younger painters, Liebermann included. Upon his arrival in Paris the artist sought out the great Hungarian, and asked for advice. The result of the interview was that Liebermann quitted Paris for Holland. Munkacsy was at that time, as Dr. Muther remarks, under the influence of Ribot, and confirmed Liebermann in his preference for heavy Bolognese shadows. It was not until he came to know the works of Troyon, Daubigny, and Corot, that he liberated himself from the influence of the school of Courbet. As subsequent events proved, the advice given by Munkacsy was good and to the point, and Liebermann acknowledges his great obligation to the painter of Christ before Pilate.
The first motive of importance which Liebermann found in the Low Countries resulted in the picture Women preserving Vegetables, completed at Weimar in 1873, and exhibited at the Salon of the same year. The subject represents a group of women in a dimly lit barn busily engaged in preserving cabbages and other vegetables. The canvas, although a great advance upon its predecessors, was ungraciously received in Germany. So little appreciation did Liebermann receive that he definitely removed to Paris, where he knew a welcome awaited him. In “la ville lumière” he worked in the schools and museums, studied Troyon, Daubigny, and Millet, whilst the influence of Manet, Monet, and the other Impressionists, was an important factor in the development of his art.
