You literally smell the fresh, salty sea air – thus already the painter’s contemporaries would comment vis-à-vis his paintings. Max Liebermann (1847- 1935) was impressed by the Dutch North Sea coast which he would visit time and again between the turn of the century and 1913, capturing it in luminous colours and lively brushstrokes. Initially in Zandvoort and then in Scheveningen and Noordwijk he discovered for himself not just the wide sea and the dunes, but also the fashionable beach life with its bathing guests and promenaders. Previously, Liebermann had for many years devoted himself to the simple life in Dutch countryside and cities, painting his subjects in a realistic manner. Against the backdrop of the sea and under the influence of the French impressionists he now became a painter of fleeting effects himself and developed his own distinct impressionistic style. The representative exhibition, which has been organised in cooperation with the Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee, provides a comprehensive survey of Liebermann’s artistic relationship to the sea. At the same time his paintings dovetail beautifully with the Collection Kunst der Westküste, which includes not only works of Liebermann himself, but also of his artist friends Jozef and Isaac Israels and of other significant chroniclers of the northern European coastal landscapes.
A catalogue (in German language only) will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.