Picture "Landscape with Grazing Cows" (1908) (Unique piece) New
Picture "Landscape with Grazing Cows" (1908) (Unique piece) New
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unique piece | signed | dated | pastel on paper | framed | size 37.5 x 44 cm
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Picture "Landscape with Grazing Cows" (1908) (Unique piece)
In his later work, Max Liebermann increasingly turned to Impressionism, with his painting style becoming freer and the handling of light more dominant. The present piece, "Landscape with Grazing Cows" from 1908, exemplifies this development: a nature scene that is defined not by meticulous details but by atmosphere and colour harmony. Here, Liebermann focuses on a rural scene that radiates calm and naturalness. Grazing cows are scattered across a wide meadow, some standing, some lying down, nestled in a landscape that extends in gentle colour transitions. There is no dramatic staging, no pathos - the artist observes and records what he sees: an everyday scene that stands out precisely because of its unassuming tranquillity.
Pastel crayons allow Liebermann to work in a relaxed, almost sketch-like manner. He juxtaposes colours in vibrant strokes, superimposes them and allows light and shadow to enter into a shimmering interplay. The meadow shines in various shades of green, interrupted by earthy accents. The sky remains light, almost transparent, streaked with fleeting shades of blue and white. Nothing seems rigid or complete. Everything remains in motion, one immerses oneself in the atmosphere of a specific moment that could vanish in the blink of an eye.
Here, Max Liebermann is working in the tradition of 17th-century Dutch painting, which accompanied him throughout his life. At the same time, he remains an impressionist: He is interested in light, the interplay of colours, and the atmosphere of a fleeting moment. Rather than precise contours, he favours allusions, the interplay of light reflections and shadow zones.
Nature is not fixed but left open - creating a space for perception and movement. "Landscape with Grazing Cows" shows Liebermann at the peak of his impressionist phase. He condenses the moment into colour and light without fixing it.
Pastel on paper, 1908, signed and dated lower left. The authenticity of the work was confirmed verbally by Dr Margreet Nouwen, Berlin, in August 2019. Motif size/sheet size 12.7 x 20.3 cm. Size in frame 37.5 x 44 cm as shown.
Producer: ARTES Kunsthandelsgesellschaft mbH, Bödekerstraße 13, 30161 Hannover, Deutschland E-Mail: info@kunsthaus-artes.de
About Max Liebermann
1847-1935
Together with Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt, Max Liebermann formed the triumvirate of German Impressionism and received numerous honours throughout his life. Through his commitment to elevating the life and work of ordinary people to art in unpretentious simplicity meant that Liebermann initially had to fight for recognition.
Liebermann only became a celebrated painter at the turn of the century when he increasingly devoted himself to motifs and scenes from the life of the upper-middle classes. He was an appointed professor at the Royal Academy and a member of the jury at the Academy exhibitions in 1897. In 1899 he founded the Berlin Secession and made it the most important German art institution. In 1920 Liebermann became president of the Prussian Academy and in 1932 its honorary president.
Because of his Jewish ancestry, he was ostracised by the Nazis and forced to resign from all offices. While watching the Nazis celebrate their victory by marching through the Brandenburg Gate from the window of his flat Liebermann supposedly said: "I can't eat as much as I want to vomit." In 1935 he died at the age of 87 after a long illness.
For Max Liebermann, nature was always a man-made (and man-inhabited) paradise. He found his motifs in gardens, parks and in bourgeois places of amusement. Liebermann is a master of staged light, which he lets fall on his scenes, often filtered through a canopy. The individual beams of light that penetrate to the ground are striking and have gone down in art history as "Liebermann's sunspots".
A one-of-a-kind or unique piece is a work of art personally created by the artist. It exists only once due to the type of production (oil painting, watercolour, drawing, lost-wax sculpture etc.).
In addition to the classic unique pieces, there are also the so-called "serial unique pieces". They present a series of works with the same colour, motif and technique, manually prepared by the same artist. The serial unique pieces are rooted in "serial art", a genre of modern art that aims to create an aesthetic effect through series, repetitions, and variations of the same objects or themes or a system of constant and variable elements or principles.
The historical starting point is considered to be Claude Monet's "Les Meules" (1890/1891), where, for the first time, a series was created that went beyond a mere group of works. The other artists, who addressed to the serial art, include Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and above all Gerhard Richter.