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Lot Essay
Max Liebermann was a frequent visitor to the old Berliner Staatsoper on the Unter den Linden, where he was able to attend orchestral performances. Konzert in der Oper belongs to a series of pictures and engravings spanning the years of the early 1920s in which Liebermann depicts both the performers and the audience in the Staatsoper enjoying a symphony concert. That Liebermann never chose to depict an operatic performance had less to do with the darkened auditorium it required, and more to do with his unabashed disdain for the form. 'Ich bin eben ein vllig unromantischer Mensch,' said Liebermann in 1925, 'Hasse alle Opern. Ist gar keine Kunst, so ein zwischending, mit Bim und Bum. Hre Musik nur im Konzertsaal' (quoted in P. Eipper, Ateliergesprche mit Liebermann und Corinth, Munich, 1986, p. 6).
In the first picture of the series, dating from 1919, Liebermann chooses as his viewpoint a position at the rear of the stalls interposing, as he does in all the series, the audience between the spectator and the performers. While this offered a very complete view of the stage, it made for a relatively cramped, four-square composition (E.1919/2). In order to address this problem, Liebermann soon set his easel in a first tier box, with this elevation broadening the scope of the scene (E.1919/3). He also shifted to a position closer to stage right, and in such a way gaining an element of dynamism. Both these refinements are apparent in the present work.
Liebermann's special ability to capture the sights and sounds of modern day Berlin was paid tribute to by Thomas Mann who, writing in 1927 on the occasion of the artist's eightieth birthday, commented: 'In Liebermann bewundere ich Berlin - das man von Mnchen aus viel besser bewundert, als wenn man dort lebte. Ich finde es kniglich, da er den geweckt schnoddrigen Berliner Jargon spricht, frank und unverflscht, und wenn ich bei ihm bin, in seinem Haus am Pariser Platz, fhle ich mich im Brenn- und Sammelpunkt erheiternder und mchtiger Charakterkrfte, an reprsentativ-symbolischem Ort, in der Residenz des genius loci' (quoted in Busch et al, Exh. cat. Max Liebermann der deutsche Impressionist, Bremen, 1995, p. 250).
In the first picture of the series, dating from 1919, Liebermann chooses as his viewpoint a position at the rear of the stalls interposing, as he does in all the series, the audience between the spectator and the performers. While this offered a very complete view of the stage, it made for a relatively cramped, four-square composition (E.1919/2). In order to address this problem, Liebermann soon set his easel in a first tier box, with this elevation broadening the scope of the scene (E.1919/3). He also shifted to a position closer to stage right, and in such a way gaining an element of dynamism. Both these refinements are apparent in the present work.
Liebermann's special ability to capture the sights and sounds of modern day Berlin was paid tribute to by Thomas Mann who, writing in 1927 on the occasion of the artist's eightieth birthday, commented: 'In Liebermann bewundere ich Berlin - das man von Mnchen aus viel besser bewundert, als wenn man dort lebte. Ich finde es kniglich, da er den geweckt schnoddrigen Berliner Jargon spricht, frank und unverflscht, und wenn ich bei ihm bin, in seinem Haus am Pariser Platz, fhle ich mich im Brenn- und Sammelpunkt erheiternder und mchtiger Charakterkrfte, an reprsentativ-symbolischem Ort, in der Residenz des genius loci' (quoted in Busch et al, Exh. cat. Max Liebermann der deutsche Impressionist, Bremen, 1995, p. 250).