Max Liebermann - Dünen mit Bauer und grasenden Ziegen

Max Liebermann

Dünen mit Bauer und grasenden Ziegen
1885

Oil on artist's board 25 x 33,5 cm Framed. Signed and dated 'M. Liebermann 95' in brown lower right. - On the verso, printed paper label of Galerie Bruno und Paul Cassirer, Berlin, thereon inscribed by hand "M.Liebermann Nr. 76/ Ölstudie/ Mann in Dünen" in ink. - The artist's board at the corners with traces of pinholes. In the upper corners with small losses of colour. - The verso mounted on firm frame backing.

In 1895 in the Dutch town of Zandvoort on the North Sea, Max Liebermann created a number of small-format oil studies in connection with the large painting “Kartoffelbuddler in den Dünen von Zandvoort” (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, see Eberle 1895/10). The present motif is additionally reminiscent of the famous composition “Alte Frau mit Ziegen” from 1890 (now in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich, see Eberle 1890/1).
Atmospherically concentrated in an appealing manner, the present study combines thematic elements of both paintings: beneath an expansive pale-blue sky, the figures of two farmers with large pack baskets move along a narrow, sandy path through the dunes and two black-and-white spotted goats graze in the foreground. The lively brushstroke evokes the wind caressing the landscape of grassy dunes; we almost believe we can feel the fresh sea air. What now presents itself to viewers as a wonderfully light and airy impression meant a process of demanding and intensive work for Liebermann: “In the landscape you can see what a painter is worth as an artist. Landscape painting is the hardest art.” (cited in Holly Richardson, in: Max Liebermann, Der Realist und die Phantasie, exhib. cat. Frankfurt/Leipzig 1997, p. 31).

List of works

Eberle 1895/8

Provenance

Galerie Bruno und Paul Cassirer, Berlin; Private collection, South Germany; Lempertz Cologne, XX Century Art, auction 528, 24 Nov.1972, lot 546; private possession, London; Rhenish private possession, estate; Lempertz Cologne, Modern Art, auction 979, 31 May 2011, lot 251; Private collection, Rhineland

Exhibitions

Hamburg 1910 (Galerie Commeter), Liebermann-Ausstellung, no. 8 ("Mann mit 2 Ziegen in den Dünen"); Berlin 1947 (Magistrat von Groß-Berlin), Max Liebermann, no. 20 ("Ziegen in den Dünen") [? - probably, according to Eberle]