ART SUNDAY - MAX LIEBERMANN

"When you start a painting, it is somewhat outside you. At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting." - Fernando Botero

It is Max Liebermann’s birthday today and he was a German impressionist painter. He was born in Berlin, on the 20th July 1847 and died in Berlin, on the 8th Feb 1935, the son of a Jewish businessman. His activities encompassed painting, drawing, printmaking and art collecting. He dominated the German art world from the 1890s to the 1930s. At the beginning of his career, he was a highly controversial figure, but after the turn of the century his art was regarded as “classic” and he was showered with honours. His Naturalist and Impressionist works have been consistently admired, despite being banned during the Nazi period. Liebermann's approach was that of a liberal cosmopolitan, and his work is distinguished by its honesty and commitment to social reform. Influenced by Dutch and French painting, he led the modernist movement in Germany away from the literary art of the 19th century.

His “Old Woman with Cat” was painted in 1878, and depicts an old woman sitting alone with a cat in front of a rough wall. Her head bowed to the side and her large coarse hands gently embracing the cat emphasise the emotional bond between the woman and her pet. Through such gestures, Max Liebermann filled the subject with his own understated and affecting humanity. He depicted the woman in bright light and wearing a richly colored skirt, thus omitting obvious signs of poverty and avoiding an unnecessary display of sentimentality.

Influenced by the Dutch Masters of the 1600s, Liebermann became fascinated with themes that concerned contemplative states. He also absorbed the lessons of French painters; his richly worked execution of this painting reflects the painterly style he learned in Paris in the 1870s. The Old Woman with Cat was painted in 1878 in Venice, where Liebermann went to recuperate after breaking his leg. He captured that city's famous golden light to harmonize the rich and disparate colors and textures of the woman and the setting.