Creator Bio
Max Liebermann
1847–1935
Max Liebermann, the son of a wealthy Berlin Jewish family, was a dominant figure in the German art world in the late-Imperial- and Weimar periods. He initially painted Dutch peasants in a realist style, then led the antiestablishment naturalist movement in the 1880s and 1890s, and, after 1895, worked for many years in an impressionist style. He was famous for his portraits and his scenes of bourgeois life. Liebermann helped found and served as the president of the progressive Berlin Secession from 1898 to 1910 and was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts from 1920 until Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, when Liebermann was forced to resign his position.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Self-Portrait
In the interwar period, Liebermann’s portraits were highly sought after by the wealthy. He also produced many self-portraits. This one, painted when he was in his seventies, portrays him as a self…
Primary Source
The Dutch Sewing School
The Dutch Sewing School is from a period in Max Liebermann’s career when Dutch peasants were a common subject in his work. The sewing school seen here was in an orphanage in Amsterdam. While he…
Primary Source
The Twelve-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple with the Scholars
When Max Liebermann first exhibited this painting, it caused not only a sensation but a scandal. Some critics objected to a Jew daring to depict Jesus, and they were offended by Liebermann’s realistic…
Primary Source
Jewish Street in Amsterdam
Max Liebermann frequently traveled to Amsterdam. He was attracted to the city because of its connection to Rembrandt, whom he idolized. But he came back again and again, drawn to Amsterdam’s Jewish…