Sale: 498 / Art of the 19th Century, July 18. 2020 in Munich Lot 530

 

530
Max Liebermann
"Die Netzflickerinnen", 1887.
Oil on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 93,750 / $ 101,250

(incl. surcharge)
"Die Netzflickerinnen". 1887.
Oil on cardboard.
Eberle 1887/7. 46.4 x 62.5 cm (18.2 x 24.6 in).

• Notable provenance
• Important motif in the artist's oeuvre
.

We are grateful to Claudia Maria Müller, State Art Collections Dresden, and Mathias Wagner, State Art Collections Dresden, for the kind expert advice.

PROVENANCE: Paul Cassirer, Berlin (acquired from the artist on October 12, 1911, verso with a gallery, label inscribed by hand).
Oscar Schmitz, Dresden (acquired from aforementioned on October 20, 1916, until 1933, as of 1931 stored at Gemäldegalerie Dresden).
Mary Münchmeyer, neé Schmitz and Friedrich (Fritz) Münchmeyer, Dresden (inherited from aforemtnioend in 1933, until before 1945).
Private collection Austria (until 2002).
Im Kinsky Vienna, auction 42, November 26, 2002, lot 32 (from the aforemntioned collection).
Private collection Germany (acquired from aforemntioned in 2002).
The work is offered in amicable agreement with the heirs after Mary Münchmeyer, neé Schmitz and Friedrich (Fritz) Münchmeyer, Dresden on basis of a fair and just solution.

EXHIBITION: Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, Berlin 1897 (verso with the exhibition label with the stamped number 2514).
Deutsche Malerei im 19. Jahrhundert, Galerie Ernst Arnold, Dresden, September to November 1918, cat. no. 134.
Neuere Kunstwerke aus Dresdner Privatbesitz, Sächsischer Kunstverein zu Dresden, IIIrd Anniversary Exhibiton, April to May 1929, cat. no. 431 (Schmitz).
Avantgarde, Reiselust und Sinnesfreude. Corinth, Liebermann, Slevogt, Kunsthaus Apolda/Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche, Aschaffenburg, September 2011 to April 2012, cat. no. 26 (with color illu.).

LITERATURE: Karl Scheffler, Die Sammlung Oskar Schmitz in Dresden, in: Kunst und Künstler, year XIX, issue 5, Feb. 1921, illu. on p. 192.
Katrin Boskamp, Studien zum Frühwerk von Max Liebermann. With a list of paintings and oil studies from 1866 to 1889, Hildesheim 1994, cat. no. 225.

This oil study by Max Liebermann in impressionist duct is one of his preliminary works for the monumental work "Die Netzflickerinnen" (Eberle 1889/1) made between 1887 and 1889, today in possession of the Kunsthalle Hamburg. Contrary to earlier preliminary studies, this is the first one to which the artist added the standing figure that is also part of the final version. The artist came across the motif of the net mending women on his honeymoon in the Netherlands in 1884 during which he captured scenes in drawings in his sketchbook. Inspired by Dutch fellow painters the vast and scant Dutch lowland became an experimental ground for the Berlin artist. His friend Jozef Israëls drew his attention to the motif of the net menders near the town of Katwijk. They caught his fancy and he would make numerous studies or both single women mending fishing nets or whole groups of them. In our work the vast Dutch dune landscape also opens under low clouds. Several women are mending the nets of the fishermen. The artist puts as much focus on the women's toilsome task as on the display of the mellow landscape. The deep hues of green and brown add a very soothing atmosphere to the composition, making this study with its harmonious colors a clear commitment to plein-air painting of the painter. It is thus little surprising that Liebermann celebrated one of his biggest successes with the fully executed painting "Die Netzflickerinnen" at the Paris World Expo in 1889. The same year Alfred Lichtwark acquired the painting for the Hamburg Kunsthalle. [EL]



530
Max Liebermann
"Die Netzflickerinnen", 1887.
Oil on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 93,750 / $ 101,250

(incl. surcharge)