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Artist
Max Liebermann was born on July 20, 1847 in Berlin and also died there on February 8, 1935. He was a painter and a graphic artist and belonged to the most important representatives of impressionism in Germany. One can still visit his villa and large garden in Wannsee, Berlin with numerous paintings of his still there. While there, one can also visit an exhibition where you can listen to voice recordings of Liebermann – in his typical Berliner manner – talk about his childhood. Trained in Weimar, with visits to Paris and the Netherlands, his style started off as naturalistic. Since the 80s of the 19th Century and under the influence of French impressionists, his work has received a more typically bright sense of colour and a lively application of colour. He was president of the Berliner Sezenssion (a group of artists separating themselves from the dominating art universities) and president of the Prussian Academy of Art (1920-1932) or rather after 1932 for another year as the president of honour. Because of the encroachment of influence by the Nazis on every sphere of life, especially art, Liebermann withdrew from the political art business. His last two years were spent in retreat and bitter about the then ruling Nazi regime. In the light of torchlight procession on the day of the seizure of power, January 30, 1933, Liebermann walked past his palace on Pariser Platz and gave his traditional comment:” I can’t eat as much as I would like to vomit”. He died in February 1935 in his home. His wife Martha committed suicide in March 1943 when she was threatened to be sent to the concentration camp “Theresienstadt”. The graves of Max and Martha Liebermann can be found in the Jewish cemetery, on Schönhauser Allee in Prenzlauer Berg.
Artwork
“Die Gänserupferinnen” was his first big oil painting developed in 1872. It measures 170.5 x 119.5 cm (width x height). Liebermann was a 25 year old student in Weimar at the time of the painting.
Brief description
We see a dark, impoverished room or stall in which some women are sitting on benches, plucking geese. A man brings some more geese. The feathers are collected in a basket. Nobody is speaking, and the expressions convey seriousness. Everybody is focused on their work and there is no interaction, except for the man, with the leather shoes, passing a goose to one of the workers. The only point of light is a little opened window on the back wall. The lantern on the ceiling was not lit. The light that falls onto the geese pluckers, coming from the painter, is perhaps coming from an opened gate or door.
Genre & Material
Painting of naturalism. Painted in oil on a canvas.
Where can I find this in Berlin?
In the Alten Nationalgalerie on the Museuminsel, Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin-Mitte. To find out how to get there, please click the link below the description
Max Liebermann was still a student in Weimar when he painted “Women Plucking Geese”. Liebermann was influenced by a contemporary art piece from Mihály von Munkácsy, which shows “Flachspflücker” that he saw in Munkascy’s atelier in Düsseldorf. After he saw Munkascy’s painting, he started his own, his first big oil painting. He didn’t find recognition for his painting based on the fact that the contents shown are impoverished and the colours used are gloomy. Yet the railway millionaire Bethel Strousberg bought it. Liebermann moved to Paris a year later.
We see a dark, impoverished room or stall in which some women are sitting on benches, plucking geese. A man brings some more geese. The feathers are collected in a basket. Nobody is speaking, and the expressions convey seriousness. Everybody is focused on their work and there is no interaction, except for the man, with the leather shoes, passing a goose to one of the workers. The only point of light is a little opened window on the back wall. The lantern on the ceiling was not lit. The light that falls onto the geese pluckers, coming from the painter, is perhaps coming from an opened gate or door.
