Max Liebermann German, 1847-1935

Liebermann spent the summers of 1897 and 1898 in the Dutch village of Laren, where he executed numerous paintings of the local people, and especially of the children of the village. Liebermann's biographer Erich Hancke dates the present work to 1897. Most probably Liebermann postdated it 1899.  

Junge und Mädchen auf der Dorfstrasse was presumed lost until now and was only known from a photograph of Liebermann’s studio, which was published in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung (26 June 1899, p. 5), and which shows it on the floor leaning against an easel (see fig. 1). Liebermann also executed a pastel version of this work (fig. 2). Both the oil and the pastel relate to his seminal painting of 1898, Schulgang in Laren (Walking to School, Laren) (fig. 3).

Numerous sketches for Schulgang in Laren depicting pairs of girls holding hands on their way to school show just important the subject was to Liebermann (Eberle, p. 480). At around the same time he also repeatedly returned to the theme of little children playing outside farmhouses (see Eberle, 1897 / 8-11). 

Paintings such as Junge und Mädchen auf der Dorfstrasse depicted reality unadorned and lacked the usual anecdotal element common in earlier German genre paintings of children. The children's simple clothing and wooden clogs added local colour while at the same time denote their social status as simple farmers' children. Their eye contact with the viewer, and the apparent shyness and vulnerability of the little boy, who clutches the hand of his protective elder sister, make them all the more endearing.

From 1875 until 1913, Liebermann spent nearly every summer in Holland. Here, he found not only a wealth of new subjects but also a tradition of Realist art that appealed to him. Liebermann was also attracted by what he saw as a social system of free and responsible citizens and independent farmers, living in harmony with nature. During the summer he made numerous plein-air studies, which he developed in his studio in Berlin during the winter. The majority of his large scale exhibition paintings at the time were painted in this way.  

In the Dutch light his palette became brighter. Liebermann also experimented with the gestural and heavy application of colour in these paintings. By the late 1890s the difference between the sketch and the final execution of a picture became increasingly less distinct, as Liebermann turned to an Impressionist style of painting from around 1895 onwards, evident in the present work.

 Fig. 1, Max Liebermann in his studio on Auguste-Viktoria-Strasse in 1899, with the present work visible in the background

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Fig. 2, Max Liebermann, Junge und Mädchen auf der Dorfstrasse, Pastel on paper, 1897, Private Collection

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Fig. 3, Max Liebermann, Schulgang in Laren, 1898, oil on canvas, Private Collection

Digi ref: 232D05102