Max Liebermann German Impressionist Original Vintage Antique European Chalk Pastel on Paper Avant-Garde Modernist Painting

Original vintage antique pastel painting, by German Impressionist Max Liebermann. The painting is signed in graphite, lower right, and still retains a brown gallery seal, on the reverse.

Max Liebermann, (20 July 1847 – 8 February 1935); was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany. Liebermann was a German Jewish artist in Berlin when Hitler's Nazi Party came to power. The Nazis considered Liebermann's artwork as " degenerate". The film "Monuments Men" shows how the Nazis banned and nearly destroyed all important works by Liebermann.
  The son of a Jewish fabric manufacturer turned banker from Berlin, Liebermann grew up in an imposing townhouse alongside Brandenburg Gate. He first studied law and philosophy at the University of Berlin, but later studied painting and drawing in Weimar in 1869, in Paris in 1872, and in the Netherlands in 1876–77. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), Liebermann served as a medic with the Order of St. John near Metz. After living and working for some time in Munich, he finally returned to Berlin in 1884, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was married in 1884 to Martha Marckwald (1857–1943, see portrait by Anders Zorn).
 In Berlin, he became a famous painter of portraits; his work is especially close in spirit to Édouard Manet. In his work, he steered away from religious subject matter, with one cautionary exception being an early painting, The 12-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple With the Scholars (1879).  Liebermann was noted for his portraits, (he did more than 200 commissioned ones over the years, including of Albert Einstein). Liebermann also painted himself, from time to time.
On the occasion of his 50th birthday, Liebermann was given a solo exhibition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, and the following year he was elected to the academy. From 1899 to 1911, he led the premier avant-garde formation in Germany, the Berlin Secession. In his various capacities as a leader in the artistic community, Liebermann spoke out often for the separation of art and politics. He did contribute regularly to a newspaper put out by artists during World War I. He pushed for the right of artists to do their own thing, unconcerned with politics or ideology, and his interest in French Realism went against conservatives who viewed it as an offensive incursion.
Beginning in 1920, Liebermann was the president of the Prussian Academy of Arts. In 1933, he resigned when the academy decided to no longer exhibit works by Jewish artists; before, he would have been forced to do so under laws restricting the rights of Jews. While watching the Nazis celebrate their victory by marching through the Brandenburg Gate, Liebermann was reported to have commented: "Ich kann gar nicht soviel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." ("I cannot eat as much, as I would like to puke").
  In 1909, Liebermann bought property in Wannsee, a wealthy suburb of summer homes on the outskirts of Berlin, and designed a villa with gardens there. From the 1910s until his death, images of the gardens dominated his work. Together with Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt, Liebermann became an exponent of German Impressionism.
  On his 80th birthday, in 1927, Liebermann was celebrated with a large exhibition, declared an honorary citizen of Berlin, and hailed in a cover story in Berlin's leading illustrated magazine.
  Liebermann died on February 8, 1935, at his home on Berlin's Pariser Platz, near the Brandenburg Gate. According to Käthe Kollwitz, he fell asleep about 7 p.m. and was gone.
  Although Liebermann had been famous, his death was not reported in the media, now controlled by the Nazis, and there were no representatives of the Academy of the Arts or the city at his funeral in the Jewish Cemetery on Schönhauser Allee. However, despite official strictures by the Gestapo, more than 100 friends and relatives attended the funeral. Among the mourners were Kollwitz, Hans Purrmann, Otto Nagel, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Bruno Cassirer, Georg Kolbe, Max J. Friedländer, and Adolph Goldschmidt.

Max Liebermann
(1847-1935)
German Impressionist
(Small) Pastel on paper
Estimated at 1925-1930
People at the shore, with sailboats
Hand-signed by the artist lower right, in graphite
The painting revealed from the reverse measures approximately 9.2" X 11 3/4".
In frame, the painting measures approximately 14.5" X 17"
The Pastel painting is in excellent original condition, behind glass; and still retains the original gallery seal in the original vintage frame. The vintage frame has some light discoloration on the canvas lining on the frame, due to age.

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