Max Liebermann

Galerie Commeter, Hamburg (possibly in the 1920s)
Kurt Hartwig Siemers, Hamburg (until 1972)
Klaus von Franchevill, Hanover (1972-1978)
Sale: Leo Spik, Berlin, 6th July 1978, lot 172
Galerie Rosenbach, Hanover (circa 1980)
Sale: Christie's, London, 19th June 1981, lot 147
Private Collection, Cologne
Sale: Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 1984, lot 697
Gemälde-Cabinett Unger, Munich (1986)
Galerie Norbert Blaeser, Steffeln an der Eifel (1986)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Dusseldorf, Sonderbundausstellung, 1910, no. 112, illustrated in the catalogue (ttitled Badende Jungen I),
Munich, Gemälde-Cabinett Unger, Gemälde Impressionen, 1986, illustrated in the catalogue
Steffeln an der Eifel, Galerie Norbert Blaeser, Meisterwerke des XX. Jahrhunderts, 1986, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Wilhelm Niemeyer, Malerische Impressionen und Koloristischer Rhythmus, Dusseldorf, 1911, illustrated after p. 46
Weltkunst, XLVIII, 1978, no.12, illustrated p. 1471
Matthias Eberle, Max Liebermann. Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde und Ölstudstudien - 1900-1935, Munich, 1996, vol. II, no. 1907/45, illustrated p. 711

Max Liebermann discovered the coast and sea as subject matter around 1896, while he was working in Holland. Until 1911, he returned to Holland almost every year and produced a large body of works devoted to the beaches of Scheveningen and Noordwijk. Liebermann appears to be following here the French Impressionist tradition as well as Dutch painters of the Hague school.

The present work probably depicts the beach of Noordwijk, a site to which Liebermann returned numerous times and found inspiration for his paintings during the summer of 1907. Liebermann depicts young bathers safely overseen by a guard, making the viewer almost a participant in the playful activites of the beach. The bold brushstroke evokes van Gogh, whose landscape paintings Liebermann had encountered and admired during this period.