It's Impressionism, Just Not as We Know It

There's not a haystack, waterlily or cliff-face to be seen; you won't be gazing into the box at the theatre or contemplating steaming locomotives in the station, because we're not looking at the French Impressionists for a change; we've crossed the Rhine (literally; we flew into Strasbourg and took the train) to explore Impressionism in Germany: Max Liebermann and his Times at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden. 

Yes, there are Caillebotte-like yachts and Renoir-style children, intimate interiors and cityscapes -- similar themes, though the treatment is often quite different -- but then there are also actors on the stage, Bible stories and views of orphanages, subjects the French never really tackled. Oh, and beer gardens. The three big names in this show are Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth and above all Max Liebermann, the doyen of the German Impressionist movement. And a man with a passion for horticulture; Liebermann's garden on the outskirts of Berlin is as important in German Impressionism as Monet's in Giverny for the French. 

Liebermann bought land in Wannsee on the south-western edge of the German capital in 1909, built a villa and had an extensive garden planted. Over nearly two decades, he created more than 200 images of the property, repeating the same view in series. Not so dissimilar to Monet, really. There's a certain semi-abstract quality to these works, and there are parallels there, too. 

But Impressionism in Germany was a late movement. Many, if not most, of the works on show here were made after 1900, when French art had already moved on (on from Pointillism as well, largely). And even in Germany, Expressionism and New Objectivity had taken over. Liebermann, however, remained true to his style. Here's how the artist painted himself in 1922: 

Liebermann's history is inextricably linked with that of Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jewish, cosmopolitan, forward-looking; even though hugely successful, he didn't really fit into imperial Germany, whose government initially refused to let him accept a Légion d'Honneur from France, the former enemy, in 1889. Anti-Semitism marred his later years; he died in 1935, two years after the Nazis seized power, and his widow Martha committed suicide in 1943 to avoid deportation to a concentration camp. 

More of Liebermann in a bit, but let's move on to Corinth, whose pictures of his wife Charlotte at home are notable for their fresh colours and rapid brushwork. 

They're certainly among the most Impressionistic works in this show, in which you can actually find quite a range of painting styles, from the rather precise realism of Fritz van Uhde's 1880s paintings of the Netherlands, inspired by the Dutch Golden Age, to late works by Corinth that are on the verge of Expressionism. 

Out on the water, now, for a another popular theme with the Impressionists but with perhaps more robust brushwork than you might see in France.  

It's 1915, but you wouldn't know there was a war going on from Philipp Franck's painting of the Wannsee lake; Liebermann's house will be somewhere in the vicinity. 

There's a fair-sized section in this show with pictures of children, some a bit twee, several, it has to be said, not too much in the spirit of Impressionism. One picture that really is, though, is this Renoir-like Portrait of a Small Girl by Dora Hitz, who spent 10 years in Paris. Très français, n'est-ce pas?

There are 108 works in this exhibition; only seven are by women. Liebermann provides 37, and here's one of his that we've included because it illustrates just how different German Impressionism could be (it's not that we particularly like it as an artwork).

Delilah, a femme fatale if ever there was one, has just cut off Samson's hair, having prised from the Israelite warrior the secret that he would lose his superhuman strength if he lost his locks. The audioguide said Liebermann had terrible trouble finishing it; we found it unsettling, if not brutal and disturbing.

This picture seems to have been an attempt to compete with dramatic paintings of actors on the stage by Slevogt, whose Champagne Aria, featuring the Portuguese opera singer Francisco d'Andrade, is really the first thing you see as you enter the show.  

Slevogt's Dancer in Gold is certainly Impressionistic, but you feel it has its roots more in Vienna than in Paris. That's not to say Slevogt didn't do things the French might be more at home with; you should see his hollyhocks. 

Let's end our tour with a couple of names you've possibly never heard of. One of the handful of women on show here is Eva Stort, a pupil of Liebermann who gets two paragraphs in the English-language version of Wikipedia, and not much more in German. Her 1890 view out of her window in the Berlin district of Schöneberg transcends the boundaries between interior, still life and cityscape. 

And there's more of the city from Lesser Ury: in a side room, a wall of arresting Berlin scenes, capturing incidents on the street at night and in the rain. He was fascinated by artificial street lighting and drew inspiration from Degas and Monet. 

He put us in mind of John Atkinson Grimshaw, or maybe LS Lowry's teacher, Adolphe Valette. A French Impressionist....

There are some not very likeable paintings in this show, there are some that seem peripheral, but there's also much to enjoy. It's a thoroughly absorbing exhibition that introduced us to new names and broadened our knowledge, and we're really glad to have crossed the Rhine into little-explored territory. Auf Wiedersehen....

Practicalities

Impressionism in Germany: Max Liebermann and his Times is on at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden until February 8. It's open Tuesday to Sunday (plus public holidays) from 1000 to 1800, though the museum is closed December 24 and 31. Full-price tickets cost 16 euros and can be bought online here. We spent a good 2 1/2 hours in this extensive show, not including a break for a coffee halfway through. The audioguide, which costs 5 euros, is very informative. 

The Museum Frieder Burda is close to the old town of Baden-Baden, in the Lichtenthaler Allee park that runs along the river from the elegant 19th-century buildings at the heart of what was once Europe's most fashionable spa. The main rail station on the line from Karlsruhe to Basel is several kilometres away from the centre, but linked by frequent buses; Augustaplatz or Leopoldplatz are convenient stops. 

After it closes in Baden-Baden, the exhibition moves on to the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, where it will open on February 28. You could easily combine a visit with a trip to Liebermann's villa, only 10 kilometres away. 

Images

Max Liebermann (1847-1935), The Flowerbeds in the Wannsee Garden to the Northwest, 1915/16, Kunstmuseum Solothurn 
Max Liebermann, Self-Portrait in Suit at the Easel, 1922, Galerie Bastian, Berlin. Photo: Galerie Bastian, Berlin
Lovis Corinth (1858-1925), Woman Reading, 1911, Private collection. Photo: Ketterer Kunst GmbH & Co. KG

Philipp Franck (1860-1944), Wannsee, 1915, Private collection, Frankfurt am Main. Photo: Kunsthaus Lempertz, Fuis Photographie, Cologne
Dora Hitz (1853-1924), Portrait of a Small Girl, before 1897, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. Photo: bpk/Nationalgalerie, SMB
Max Liebermann, Samson and Delilah, 1902, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Photo: Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Max Slevogt (1868-1932), Dancer in Gold, 1895, Landesmuseum Mainz 
Eva Stort (1855-1936), View from the Window (Schöneberg), 1890, David Ragusa Collection. Photo: Achim Kukulies, Dusseldorf

Lesser Ury (1861-1931), Nocturnal Street Scene, Berlin, c. 1915-20, Dr Matthias Wilkening Foundation