馬克思·列伯曼 | 《萬湖花園的白樺樹徑，捲心菜田風景》

比勒美術館，斯圖加特
加布里勒·齊默爾文（原姓「比勒」），斯圖加特（1974年起傳承自上述家族）
現藏家1998年購自上述藏家

漢堡，美術館；柏林，舊國家美術館，〈在馬克斯·列伯曼的花園裡〉，2004-05年，品號24，圖錄載彩圖

馬蒂亞斯·埃貝勒，《馬克斯·列伯曼：油畫及油彩習作專題目錄》，慕尼黑，1996年，第II冊，品號1919/23，991頁載彩圖

The present work depicts the surroundings of Max Liebermann’s beloved garden at Wannsee in Berlin, a subject that provided him with an endless source of inspiration. Having attained considerable recognition as an artist, followed by financial success, Liebermann commissioned a villa in 1909, sparing no expense on its formal flower beds, exotic shrubs and thick hedges. The Wannsee villa became the painter’s summer residence during the last decades of his life, and the paintings from this period largely focus on the garden and the view of the lake that it offered. Within this series, the artist rendered his subject from various angles, sometimes focusing on the cultivated, geometrical patches of flower beds while at other times representing the open expanses.

 

Liebermann’s practice of painting en plein air, as well as his method of exploring the same subject from a variety of viewpoints, demonstrates Liebermann’s status as the most important German post-Impressionist painter. Like Claude Monet, who never tired of painting his garden at Giverny, Liebermann painted the Wannsee garden from a variety of angles and at different times of day. In the present canvas, he depicted a path lined with birch trees that connected his villa with the lake, which can be glimpsed between the tree trunks. To the left of the alley, a woman can be seen working in the cabbage field. When Liebermann had his garden designed, he insisted on keeping the birch trees in their original place and thus created a wonderful picturesque path in his garden which became an inspiring source for many of his Wannsee paintings.