Max Liebermann - Muschelfischer mit Karren (Krevettenfischer am Strand) - image-1

Lot 304 Dα

Max Liebermann - Muschelfischer mit Karren (Krevettenfischer am Strand)

Auction 1023 - overview Cologne
26.11.2013, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 60.000 € - 70.000 €

Max Liebermann

Muschelfischer mit Karren (Krevettenfischer am Strand)
c. 1908

Pastel 40.5 x 55.5/55.8 cm M Liebermann

Pastel on card, laid down on thicker card 40.5 x 55.5/55.8 cm, framed under glass. Signed 'M Liebermann' lower right, above the signature another presumably earlier signature in brown chalk, blurred and hardly legible. - A typewritten label to the reverse of the old frame backing, therein titled "Krevettenfischer am Strand" (Shrimp Fishermen on the Beach) and with a label from Kunsthaus Bühler. - The colours still very fresh. The margins slightly rubbed, the edges partially slightly bumped.

With a certificate by Margreet Nouwen, Berlin, dated 18 November 2013

Provenance
Frau Toni Lessing, Berlin (before 1927, to January 1933); Dr. Spiro (January 1933 to 11 July 1933); Dr. Zacharias (since 11 July 1933); Helga Täubler, Berlin/New York; Mes. Ader, Picard, Tajan, Hôtel George V, Paris, 22 June 1988, cat. no. 14 with colour illus.; Galerie Dr. Bühler, Munich, August 1988; private collection, Germany; Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart, Nov./Dec. 2007, private collection, North Germany

Exhibition
Berlin July/August 1927 (Galerie Bruno Cassirer), Zum 80. Geburtstag von Max Liebermann. Ausstellung von achtzig Pastellen, cat. no. 41 "Muschelfischer mit Karren", not illus.; Munich 1988 (Galerie Dr. Bühler), Aquarell - Pastell - Zeichnung, cat. no. 31 with colour illus.

Literature
Max Deri, Hors d'Oeuvre, in B.Z. am Mittag, Berlin 4 July 1927 (review of the exhibition at Bruno Cassirer)

This pastel excellently displays Liebermann's mastery of the technique by creating an enchanting, light-flooded scenery in an impressionist manner. The piece is also an example of the painter's honest and unsentimental interest in the everyday lives of ordinary people.
In front of a narrow pale grey horizon, the landscape of water and sand spreads out, depicted in a haze of white, grey and beige tones. In a mass of varying nuances and surface structures, Liebermann creates an image suggesting immense depth and breadth and expressing the raw character of the seascape. The central figure of the mussel fisher with his cart is accentuated through the use of clear contours and vivid accent colours.
Whilst at the beginning of his time in Holland, Max Liebermann deliberately avoided depicting the sea, he changed his mind under the influence of impressionism. "His colour palette becomes lighter and more concerned with showing the effects of sunlight. He now becomes, as noted by his biographer Hancke, 'a confirmed en plein air painter, and a new problem with which, considering it an impossible task, he had previously never concerned himself - namely the depiction of the sea - became an obsession for him'." (cit. in: Max Liebermann am Meer, exhib. cat. Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee, Berlin/Museum Kunst der Westküste, Alkersum a. Föhr 2011/12, p. 18). Liebermann began creating oil sketches directly on the beach in 1896, which he used for the painting "Badende Knaben - Jungen in Zandvoort" (Bathing Youths - Boys in Zandvoort; Eberle 1896/2, Neue Pinakothek München). Now that the sea had become a subject worthy of painting, his oeuvre hence began to contain numerous depictions of bathers, riders and walkers on the beach in the coming years. Depictions devoted to the work, rather than the enjoyments, of the sea are relatively rare, an example of which is "Muschelfischer - Graue See" of 1908 (Mussel Fisher - Grey Sea; Eberle 1908/34).

Certificate

With an unsigned and undated assessment by Margreet Nouwen (?)

Provenance

Frau Toni Lessing, Berlin (before 1927, to January 1933); Dr. Spiro (January 1933 to 11 July 1933); Dr. Zacharias (since 11 July 1933); Helga Täubler, Berlin/New York; Mes. Ader, Picard, Tajan, Hôtel George V, Paris, 22 June 1988, cat. no. 14 with colour illus.; private collection, Germany; Kunsthaus Bühler 19 Sept. 2007

Literature

Max Deri, Hors d'Oeuvre, in B.Z. am Mittag, Berlin 4.7.1927 (review of the exhibition in Bruno Cassirer)

Exhibitions

Berlin July/August 1927 (Galerie Bruno Cassirer), Zum 80. Geburtstag von Max Liebermann. Ausstellung von achtzig Pastellen, cat. no. 41 "Muschelfischer mit Karren", not illus.; München 1988 (Galerie Dr. Bühler), Aquarell - Pastell - Zeichnung, cat. no. 31 with colour illus.