Max Liebermann (1847-1935)

In 1910, Liebermann acquired some land by the Wannsee near Berlin, and the following year had a summerhouse and studio erected, built with finances Liebermann proudly claimed he had 'painted' in just two years. Closely modelled on a villa in Hamburg and inspired by Dutch patrician country houses, the house became a summer retreat for the artist as he entered his final creative phase. Moreover, with its spacious, landscaped grounds, designed with the help of his friend, Alfred Lichtwark, which extended all the way to the lakeside, the site proved a fertile source of artistic inspiration from 1910 onwards. Indeed, such was Liebermann's affinity with the villa's gardens that he came to call them his Freilichtatelier.

Spaziergänger am Wannseeufer displays Liebermann's superb synthesis of Impressionist style. As a mature artist at the height of his powers, Liebermann's most expressive post-war pictures are characterised by tremendous light effects and a lively brushstroke. The fresh, vivacious subject of the picture is equalled in importance by the work's exploration of rich, sun-drenched colour. The handling, moreover, with its very direct and gestural use of the palette knife, its dynamic, improvisitory brushwork and its lively impasto, betrays a similar debt to the experiments of the French masters for whom Liebermann had such respect. Liebermann's touch, texture and compositional sense in the Wannsee pictures is rarely bettered and Spaziergänger am Wannseeufer is a superlative example of these works.