The German Genius

1880s, remarked that painters there “had the status of generals.” 6
    Despite these positive factors, by the early 1890s disagreements over the “equal rights for all” exhibition policy at the association were reaching critical dimensions and in February 1892 eleven artists announced they had established an informal club that would pursue its own goals outside the association. None of the eleven at that stage intended to resign from the MAA but their “Sezession” was soon supported by nine other artists, and this made them more optimistic that a rival organization could succeed. They announced their decision to mount their own exhibition and that it would counter the aims of the association, which, they said, had grown too unwieldy in size and was too dominated by mediocre artists. For the city fathers, the Sezession threatened the artistic unity of Munich so it was not universally popular and there was briefly a plan by the Sezessionists to hold exhibitions in Berlin. But a member of the city’s board of works agreed to give the new group a plot of his own land for a five-year term. This kick-started the project, and the Sezessionists obtained funding to build their own gallery, an impressive achievement, making the Sezession a powerful presence in Munich even before its first exhibition opened in 1893. 7
    T HE “A POSTLE OF U GLINESS”
     
    The best-known, and for many people the best of the Sezessionists in Munich, was Max Liebermann. Though his family of wealthy cotton manufacturers was Jewish, they might almost have been one of Max Weber’s Protestants in their devotion to hard work and thrifty simplicity (Liebermann’s grandmother even did the laundry herself). Max’s father naturally wanted his son to go into the family business, so the son received little encouragement when it became clear he wanted to be a painter.
    Although he was eventually allowed to attend the Weimar Academy, Liebermann never rebelled against his bourgeois background. Indeed, his lifestyle was so like that of his businessman-father that Gerhart Hauptmann was once moved to remark: “How is it possible for such a philistine to paint such [beautiful] pictures!” 8
    In fact, Liebermann was someone who kept his distance, both in his life and in his art. He announced his approach while he was still a student at Weimar, with The Goosepluckers , a large canvas showing women plucking the feathers from geese. At one level this could be seen—and was seen—as social comment, working women being exploited to pluck down in order to “warm the affluent.” On closer inspection, however, the women are shown enjoying their work, and they have a quiet dignity as they get on with it. The picture provoked widespread criticism, much of which missed the point, critics taking affront at what they took to be references to exploitation, rather than that there is dignity in honest toil. 9
    Between Weimar and the Munich Sezession, Liebermann made trips to the Netherlands and to France. In the former he was very impressed by the humane policies of the Dutch toward orphans and the elderly, and he made a number of pictures showing this side of Dutch life. Here too he focused on the quiet dignity among even the most unfortunate souls, observing that everyone is capable of reflection, thoughtfulness, even peace of mind. Only later did his style become lighter, using broader brushwork and a palette knife to create scumbled passages that gave his work an even lusher appeal. This too was new and, for many, unappealing. Liebermann became known as “the apostle of ugliness.”
    After his travels in the Netherlands and France, he returned to Germany and settled in Munich. He exhibited at the association but as the 1890s passed, Liebermann’s style changed again. He started to collect paintings of the French Impressionists, and their lightness rubbed off on him. He used his distinctive grays more sparingly now, his pictures became more colorful, airy, and light—and he began to concern himself less with the world of the poor and unfortunate and more with the elegant world of the bourgeoisie. 10
    Liebermann eventually settled in Berlin, where he was one of those who helped found the Sezession there and became its president. His “Impressionist” works—of Beer Gardens and parks—lack the bite of his earlier work, but his brilliant technique was just as well suited to the more fashionable world that he now portrayed. Even here he succeeded in keeping