Lot 181 Dα

Our painting is one of the rare concert pictures that Liebermann painted from the late 1910s to the early 1920s at Berlin's national opera “Unter den Linden”. The extraordinary pieces from this series were created directly in the auditorium during the performance of the concerts, which the artist enjoyed and regularly attended. This circumstance also explains the relatively small formats of the concert pictures.
Similarly to other groups of works, in the concert pictures Liebermann has concentrated on a recurring theme, creating minimal variations in the individual works. He is actually much less concerned with capturing what is happening on the stage or the reactions of the audience than with the dense atmosphere within the concert hall and the festive mood of the moment.
Liebermann selected either a seat in the back rows of a box or in the upper balcony for his pictures. Usually looking out from the left side of the auditorium, he presents his viewers with a space in a warm tonality. He typically utilises a gentle, earthy palette provided with charming contrasts through the black and white of the orchestra and audience's evening wear. Unlike other works, in which Liebermann deliberately structures the space through the walls of the auditorium, he has placed the viewers of our work in the midst of the audience. The exceptional immediacy that this brings to our piece
also finds expression in the spontaneous and free brushwork. Here, presumably moved not least directly by the music, Liebermann arrives at a work of outstanding painterly quality in a chromatic all-over.