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Lot Essay
Sold with a certificate from Professor Dr. Matthias Eberle, dated Berlin, den 23. August 2001. This work is recorded as 1932/18 in the archive.
Among Max Liebermann's most successful paintings are those capturing the bourgeoisie in the beer gardens, cafés and restaurants of Berlin. In contrast to Liebermann's early paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, where motifs were predominantly taken from rural life, his subsequent work was characterised by themes drawn from urban leisure in much the same way as Manet, Monet and Renoir had overturned the hierarchy of subject matter in French painting at the end of the Second Empire. Liebermann thus turned his attention to scenes of elegant bourgeois families strolling through zoos and parks, tennis players, beer gardens, and, as in the present work, open-air restaurants.
The present work may well depict the celebrated Schwedischer Pavillion which was at the time a particularly fashionable meeting place. The Schwedischer Pavillion in Wannsee on the Havel near Berlin was located very near to the house Liebermann had had built in 1910 and where he frequently painted after the First World War. Liebermann's large garden, which stretched down to the lake, designed with the help of his friend Alfred Lichtwark, was a source of great pride to the artist and the house and its environs inspired many of his compositions.
Among Max Liebermann's most successful paintings are those capturing the bourgeoisie in the beer gardens, cafés and restaurants of Berlin. In contrast to Liebermann's early paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, where motifs were predominantly taken from rural life, his subsequent work was characterised by themes drawn from urban leisure in much the same way as Manet, Monet and Renoir had overturned the hierarchy of subject matter in French painting at the end of the Second Empire. Liebermann thus turned his attention to scenes of elegant bourgeois families strolling through zoos and parks, tennis players, beer gardens, and, as in the present work, open-air restaurants.
The present work may well depict the celebrated Schwedischer Pavillion which was at the time a particularly fashionable meeting place. The Schwedischer Pavillion in Wannsee on the Havel near Berlin was located very near to the house Liebermann had had built in 1910 and where he frequently painted after the First World War. Liebermann's large garden, which stretched down to the lake, designed with the help of his friend Alfred Lichtwark, was a source of great pride to the artist and the house and its environs inspired many of his compositions.