Max Liebermann

Painter and etcher, born in Berlin, Germany. He studied at Weimar and in Paris, where he first won fame as ‘disciple of the ugly’. In Germany from 1878, he painted open-air studies and scenes of humble life which were often sentimental. Later, however, his work became more colourful and romantic and, influenced by the French Impressionists, he became the leading painter of that school in his own country.

Max Liebermann (July 20, 1847 in Berlin - February 8, 1935) was a German painter. The son of a Jewish businessman from Berlin, Liebermann first studied law and philosophy, but later studied painting and drawing in Weimar in 1869, in Paris in 1872 and in Holland during 1876-77. Although residing and working for some time in Munich, he finally returned to Berlin in 1884 and worked there for the rest of his life.

Together with Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt, Liebermann became an exponent of German Impressionism. While watching the Nazis march through the Brandenburg Gate celebrating the takeover of Adolf Hitler, Leibermann was reported to have commented: ""Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte," translated as One cannot eat as much as one would like to vomit."

On 30 April 2006, the Max Liebermann Society (http://www.max-liebermann.de) opened a permanent museum in the Liebermann family's house in Berlin-Wansee (the artist's wife, Martha Liebermann, was forced to sell the building in 1940 before she fled Germany).