FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life: The New York Botanical Garden

The first solo presentation of artist Frida Kahlo’s work in New York City in more than 10 years, FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life, focuses on the artist’s engagement with nature in her native country of Mexico, as seen in her garden and decoration of her home,
as well as her complex use of plant imagery in her painting. On view from May 16 through November 1, 2015, The New York Botanical Garden’s exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on Kahlo’s intense interest in the botanical world. 

Guest curated by distinguished art historian and specialist in Mexican art, Adriana Zavala, Ph.D., the exhibition transforms many of The New York Botanical Garden’s spaces and gardens. It reimagines Kahlo’s studio and garden at the Casa Azul (Blue House) in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and includes a rare display of more than a dozen original paintings and drawings on view in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Art Gallery. 

Accompanying programs invite visitors to learn about Kahlo’s Mexico in new ways through poetry, lectures, Mexican-inspired shopping and dining experiences, and hands-on activities for kids. Bilingual texts in English and Spanish provide historical and cultural background, with photos of the garden as it appeared during Kahlo’s lifetime.  

THE GARDEN AND STUDIO AT THE CASA AZUL: CONSERVATORY EXHIBITION 

The landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at The New York Botanical Garden comes alive with the colors and textures of Frida Kahlo’s Mexico. Visitors entering the exhibition view a reimagined version of Kahlo’s garden at the Casa Azul (Blue House), today the Museo Frida Kahlo, the artist’s lifelong home outside of Mexico City, which she transformed with traditional Mexican folk-
art objects, colonial-era art, religious ex-voto paintings, and native Mexican plants. 

Passing through the indigo-blue walls with embellishments in sienna and green, visitors stroll along paths lined with flowers, showcasing a variety of important garden plants from Mexico. A scale version of the pyramid at the Casa Azul—originally created to display pre-Hispanic art collected by Kahlo’s husband, famed muralist Diego Rivera—showcases traditional terra-cotta pots filled with Mexican cacti and succulents. 

A niche adjacent to the pyramid contains a desk and easel, reminding visitors that Kahlo’s work in her studio was intertwined with her life in her garden. Visitors to the Conservatory experience the Casa Azul as an expression of Kahlo’s deep connection to the natural world and to Mexico. 

KAHLO’S WORKS ON VIEW: ART GALLERY EXHIBITION

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Art Gallery at the Garden exhibits 14 of Kahlo’s paintings and works on paper—many borrowed from private collections—highlighting the artist’s use of botanical imagery in her work. Focusing on her lesser-known yet equally spectacular still lifes, as well as works that engage nature in unusually symbolic ways, this grouping of artworks includes

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940); 

Flower of Life (1944);  

Still Life with Parrot and Flag (1951); 

and Self-Portrait Inside a Sunflower (1954). 

The Art Gallery exhibition, curated by Dr. Zavala, introduces visitors to the importance of plants and nature in Kahlo’s paintings and her life. 

Also on view are large-scale photographs of Kahlo and the Casa Azul’s garden, which are complemented by photographs of Kahlo taken by photographers and friends such as Nickolas Muray.

From a review in The Guardian:

Plant experts at the Botanical Garden have made some new historical discoveries in Kahlo’s art, noting an accurate rendering of a cotyledon, part of the embryo within a plant’s seed, in

The Dream, 1932.

Kahlo created this work when she was pregnant and living in Detroit, drawing herself asleep in bed with her long hair forming roots in the earth. “It’s a quite surrealistic drawing, and I’d never even noticed the cotyledon,” Zavala says. “It reaffirms our hypothesis – Kahlo worked carefully from source material, as well as from her imagination. She had countless books about plants in her collection and she collected various specimens. She even tucked miniature bouquets of flowers throughout the pages of a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.”

One of the most important paintings in the show is

Kahlo’s 1931 portrait of botanist inventor Luther Burbank, who is credited with developing more than 800 varieties of plants. Kahlo paints him sprouting from the ground, a plant in his hand and his bottom half depicted as a tree. The painting can be read politically, Zavala says: “This work was at the top of my list, not only because of its subject matter but because Kahlo creates an extraordinary human/plant hybrid – it reflects her thinking and beliefs in 1931, a time when the mixing of species was anathema in places like Germany.”

WORKS BY MARC CHAGALL, PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, FERDINAND HODLER AND FERNANDO BOTERO AT KOLLER ZURICH AUCTION June 26

Swiss Art

Rediscovered Symbolist work by Ferdinand Hodler

On 26 June Koller will bring to auction one of Ferdinand Hodler’s major Symbolist works, “Urkraft”. This impressive figure painting was created in the first half of 1909 and takes up the then-revolutionary theme of the “Lebensreform” cult of the body. The work was formerly acquired directly from the artist by the German philosopher and collector Eberhard Griesebach (1880-1945) and in 1942 it entered a Swiss collection. From there, it will now be offered for the first time on the art market. This well-documented painting is estimated to achieve CHF 400 000 to 500 000.

An additional top lot is presented by a rare large-format painting by August Giacometti. The 113×150 cm “Marseille II” from 1930 is impressive not only in size, but also through its captivating play of Mediterranean colours. It is estimated at CHF 350 000 and 450 000. 

  

Impressionist and Modern Art 

An important painting by Chagall and three Renoirs

From the “painter poet” Marc Chagall comes “La famille du pêcheur”, an oil painting composed of shades of deep blue. Produced in 1968, it has been exhibited in major Chagall retrospectives such as at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1987, at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Turin in 2004 and at the Museum of Art in Seoul. It will now be presented at Koller with an estimate of CHF 2.5 to 3 million.

Three paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir will lead the selection of Impressionist works offered in the auction. 

“La Bergère” was created by the master in c.1902 and is presen-ted with an estimate of CHF 1 to 1.5 million. 

“Baigneuse assise, de dos” 

and “Bouquet d’anémones” 

both originate from 1917, and thus from the late works produced by the artist. They are estimated at CHF 180 000 to 250 000 and CHF 250 000 to 350 000. 

The auction will additionally feature a pencil drawing “Nu couché” by Pablo Picasso from the period between 1942 and 1944, estimated at CHF 180 000 to 240 000, and an ink drawing “Tête de jeune fille” by Henri Matisse from 1950, estimated at CHF 240 000 to 300 000.  

PostWar & Contemporary

Botero’s “Mother and Child” The particularly impressive top lots of the Post War and Contemporary auction include Fernando Botero’s oil painting “Mother and Child” from 2003, showing a toddler sitting on his mother’s lap. Like many of Botero’s works, this one also presents rounded bodies with exaggerated proportions, developed out of the glorification of sensuality and life. The work is estimated at CHF 340 000 to 400 000. 

Important rare works in this auction additionally include an abstracted landscape created in 1963 by Jean Fautrier in shaded whites and reds briskly applied in broad impasto brushstrokes, estimated at CHF 115 000 to 130 000, 

as well as Hans Hartung’s large-format oil painting “T1958-18”, with its swinging serrated forms lending the picture a sense of dynamic energy, estimated at CHF 325 000 to 380 000.  

Modern and Contemporary Prints 

Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol

The selection of modern prints offered in the auction includes a beautiful etching by Paul Klee. This 15×17 cm work “Komiker” from 1904 is presented with an estimate of CHF 40 000 to 50 000. 

Estimated at CHF 40 000 to 60 000, a complete portfolio of “Portraits imaginaires” by Pablo Picasso with 29 signed and dated colour lithographs after the painting series from 1969 will also be offered in the auction, in addition to the portrait “Jeune fille inspirée par Cranach”, estimated at CHF 30 000 to 40 000.

Top lots of the contemporary prints include Andy Warhol’s colour silkscreen of a Goethe portrait. It was inspired by J.H.W. Tischbein’s painting “Goethe in der römischen Campagna” which he had seen during a visit to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. It is estimated at CHF 35 000 to 45 000

ALFRED MAURER: AT THE VANGUARD OF MODERNISM ON VIEW AT THE ADDISON GALLERY THIS SPRING

This spring, the Addison Gallery of American Art, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, will present Alfred Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism, a comprehensive exhibition celebrating the American painter’s singular accomplishments and invaluable contributions to American art in the early twentieth century. After securing a place as one of the most accomplished late nineteenth-century American figurative artists, Maurer (1868-1932) went on to join the ranks of the avant-garde.

From his cross-fertilization of Fauvism between French and American circles to his exploration of abstraction in his late radical works, Maurer proved to be a formidable creative force in expanding the potential for artistic expression in American art. Alfred Maurer opens will be on view through July 31.

Following its run at the Addison, the exhibition will travel to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas,where it will be on view October 10, 2015–January 4, 2016.

“All phases of Maurer’s artistic career are covered in this groundbreaking exhibition, which features his fin-de-siècle figure paintings, scenes of contemporary leisure, Fauvist works, landscapes and florals, heads and figures, still lifes, and late abstractions, including the Addison’s own Still Life with Pears,” Susan Faxon, the Addison’s Associate Director and Curator of Art Before 1950, notes. “While Maurer is often characterized as a painter of divergent, seemingly contradictory aesthetics, this careful study of his oeuvre reveals steady interest in thematic ideas as well as formal experimentation with color, form, and abstraction.

”With an intimate knowledge of the most current French art and friendships with key vanguard American art figures, Maurer was positioned at the nexus of new ideas about art. He left New York for Paris to study in 1897 and remained there until the outbreak of World War I. While abroad, he became an intimate of Leo and Gertrude Stein’s circle of creative luminaries. Through his involvement with the Steins, Maurer became one of the first Americans to experience the work of Henri Matisse, as well as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Pablo Picasso, among others.

He in turn played a key role in introducing fellow Americans to their vanguard artistic salon, which was brimming with progressive art and ideas. Maurer continued to bridge French and American Modernism through the sophisticated Fauve work he was producing and exhibiting in Paris as early as 1906.

Witness to and participant in the development of revolutionary artistic ideas, he was perfectly poised to elucidate others in their quest for knowledge of the latest artistic developments. This included such important collectors as Dr. Albert C. Barnes, for whom Maurer served as an agent while Barnes was building his remarkable collection of twentieth-century masterpieces.

Maurer proved to be an invaluable contact for other pioneering American figures of the day as well, including Walt Kuhn, Walter Pach, and Arthur B. Davies, who, in the early 1910s,assembled the pivotal exhibition commonly known as the Armory Show.

Following his return from Paris, Maurer moved in the most current art sets in New York, sustaining close friendships with individuals who were committed to changing the direction of American painting. In his quest to forge new paths, Maurer produced some of the most advanced and adventurous workby an American in the first half of the twentieth century.

“The pioneering spirit of American Modernism is crystallized in Maurer’s late Cubist paintings, a body of work rich with pictorial possibilities. This is avirtual treasure trove of American art that turns a lens on theart of innovation and expression in the modern age,”Dr. Stacey B. Epstein, the exhibition’s curator, adds. 

Alfred Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism is accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue that documents many of Maurer’s most accomplished works and includes a comprehensive examination of Maurer and his cultural context by Epstein, whose thorough and original research sets Maurer in his rightful place within American Modernism. This impressive catalogue is the first published since 1973 to focus solely on Maurer’s work. 

 From the Wall Street Journal (images added):

... The first and largest room establishes Maurer as an accomplished Realist, incorporating elements of Manet, Whistler, Chase and John Singer Sargent.

Paintings here include the award-winning “

An Arrangement” (1901)

—a dark, moody portrait of a woman seated on a tilted floor—exciting for two Chinese vases, which feel whiplashed into being.

Typically, Maurer’s figures seem locked into place, as if he were nailing down all the details. In

“At the Shore” (1901),

calligraphically rendered children—secondary characters—are the most believable and satisfying.

Unusual here is Maurer’s assured, luminous gem

“Rockaway Beach with Pier” (c. 1901).

Its cursory forms—fluid surf, sand, boats, bathers and sky—suffused in blue light, magically coalesce...

In “Young Woman in Kimono” (c. 1901),

in which a brilliant blood-red overpowers a sea of earth tones, Maurer’s color seems to be attempting to break free, to take flight.

And in the loosely handled, standing life-size portrait “Jeanne” (c. 1904),

the woman, cigarette in hand, snidely glares at the viewer. Her tilted hat swoops like a bird. The next two galleries bustle with Fauvist landscapes, portraits and still lifes from 1907-14. Ecstatic, reborn, Maurer emulates Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck and André Derain. Entering these galleries is like walking into a hothouse. In the best works here—including

“Fauve Landscape with Train” (c. 1907),

 

“Landscape with Trees” (1909),

“Autumn” (c. 1912)

and a series of “Fauve Landscapes” (c. 1908-12)—Maurer thinks, and breathes, in color....

Max Kuehne

Biography - Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York

 
By Chelsea DeLay


Max Kuehne was born in Halle, Germany on November 7, 1880. His family immigrated to the United States in 1894 and settled in Flushing, New York. Growing up, Kuehne led an active lifestyle and enjoyed many outdoor activities; Richard, the artist’s son, fondly reminisced on his father’s boyhood years, describing, “whatever job he held was somehow always terminated by the advent of summer when the water was warm and there was swimming from the East River piers, rowing races on the Hudson, bicycle races at the Hippodrome, or sailing in Flushing Bay on Long Island Sound.”

It was not until he was twenty-seven years old that he began to formally pursue a career in art; despite such a late start, Kuehne was fortunate to study under William Merritt Chase and Kenneth Hayes Miller at the New York School of Art in New York City, and later became a pupil of the renowned Ashcan leader Robert Henri. They instilled in Kuehne the values and methods of both Impressionism and Realism, which formed the foundation for his future career as an artist.

In 1910, Kuehne sought inspiration overseas and traveled to Europe, where he bicycled through Germany, England, France, Belgium, and Holland, often accompanied by his close friend and colleague Ernest Lawson.

After returning to New York City the following year, Kuehne set up a studio in Greenwich Village, where he became friends with neighboring artists that included Guy Pène du Bois, William Glackens, William Zorach, and Maurice and Charles Prendergast. The next four years were spent producing urban scenes depicting the downtown life and painting along the East River and its bridges.

During the summer of 1912, a pivotal shift in Kuehne’s career began when he visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, which resulted in a body of work described as “some of his most successful pictures, paintings full of sunlight…[which revealed] the fact that he was becoming a colourist of considerable distinction.”(3) From these early harbor scenes, a clear understanding of subject matter and brighter color palette began to emerge—characteristics which were further developed during a trip to England in 1913 when he painted rocky seascapes of Cornwall. After spending a year working along the Cornish coast, Kuehne moved to Spain and fell in love with the country’s landscape and culture.

The city of Granada became his home for the next three years, where he reconnected with Ernest Lawson, who was also painting in the country at the time. Kuehne absorbed elements of Lawson’s style while the two spent time together in Spain, and incorporated his romantic approach into sober nocturne scenes and mysterious, moonlit landscapes.
 
In 1918, after he returned to the United States, Kuehne spent the summer in Cape Ann, Massachusetts, where, beginning in 1920, he would return every summer. He eventually established a studio in Rockport, a coastal town that inspired luminous marine scenes and dramatic landscapes that are considered some of Kuehne’s best works. Two years passed after his stateside return before the allure of Spain drew him back to the country for a second time in 1920, and once more for a third visit in 1922. He returned again in 1923, after which he spent a brief time in Paris; the pictures painted that year demonstrate a unique brilliancy and looser handling than his usual technique.
 
The artist enjoyed the patronage of several notable collectors of his time, including Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Juliana Force (the founding director of the Whitney Museum of American Art), noted critic and collector A. E. Gallatin, Archer Huntington, Duncan and Marjorie Phillips, and Dr. Albert Barnes of the Barnes Foundation. Kuehne’s works were widely displayed throughout his career, including exhibitions held by the Carnegie Institute, The Art Institute of Chicago, Worcester Art Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Society of Independent Artists, and Whitney Museum of American Art, to name a few. During the Depression, Kuehne expanded his career into the realm of decorative arts. He became quite skilled in the art of frame making, crafting expertly designed, carved, and gilded frames for not only his work, but also Maurice Prendergast, Charles Sheeler, and Ernest Lawson.

Examples of Kuehne’s work are included in prominent museum collections including those of The Barnes Foundation, Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art.

Chronology

1880 Born in Halle, Germany
1894 Moves to Flushing, New York
1907 Begins formal training at the New York School of Art, studies under William Merritt Chase and Kenneth Hayes Miller
1908 Enrolls at the National Academy of Design
1909–10 Studies at the William Merritt Chase School with Chase and Miller, enrolls in night classes taught by Robert Henri
1910 Spends the year abroad studying works in principal galleries in England, France, Germany, Holland, and Belgium
1911 Opens studio in Rockport, Massachusetts
1912 Spends the summer in Gloucester, Massachusetts
1913 Travels to England, spends time painting along the coast of Cornwall
1914–ca. 1917 Visits Spain for the first time and ends up living there for three years, spends eighteen months residing in Granada
1918 Returns to the United States, travels to Gloucester, Maine in the summer
1919 Spends the summer in Maine, paints in Bar Harbor and Rockport
1920 Returns to Spain in July
1921 Spends the summer working in Rockport, Massachusetts
1922 Returns to Spain
1923 Returns to Spain for the last time, spends summer and autumn in Paris
1925 Takes up residence in Rockport, Massachusetts
1940 Five etchings used as illustrations in James B. Connolly’s The Port of Gloucester; joins the Rockport Art Association

 Exhibitions

1912–37 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., biennials (6 times)
1917 Society of Independent Artists, New York, New York
1918–41 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
1919 Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor, Maine, solo exhibition
1920 Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
1921 C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, New York, solo exhibition
The Whitney Studio Club, New York, New York
Architectural League, New York, New York
1925 Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1926 Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, prize
1927, 1929–30 Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1930 Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
1930–35 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1935–37 Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1968 Hirschl & Adler, New York, New York
1972 Hirschl & Adler, New York, New York, solo exhibition
1998 R.H. Love Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, solo exhibition
2001 Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, New York, solo exhibition
2011 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York

 Max Kuehne (1880–1968)
Annisquam Regatta
Oil on board
11 15/16 x 21 5/16 inches
Signed lower right: Kuehne

Max Kuehne (1880–1968)
Across the Hudson
Oil on canvas laid down on board
24 x 30 inches
Signed lower left: Kuehne; inscribed on verso: Across the Hudson / Max Kuehne

The Hispanic Society of America

Max Kuehne, Segovia Cathedral, 1916,
Oil on panel 12.5 x 15.7; A241


Skinner

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) Rockport Harbor

Auction:

American & European Works of Art - May 29, 2015

Estimate:

$15,000 - $25,000

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) In the Harbor, Provincetown

Auction: American & European Works of Art - Sep 24, 2010

Sold for:

$4,148

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) Smith's Pier-Provincetown

Auction:

Discovery - Apr 14, 2010

Sold for:

$2,370

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) Street Scene, Rockport, Mass.

Auction:

American & European Works of Art - Mar 07, 2008

Sold for:

$1,185

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) Town Square

Auction:

American & European Works of Art - Mar 07, 2008

Sold for:

$1,067

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) Fishing Wharf, Gloucester

Auction:

Sale #2366 - May 18, 2007

Sold for:

$1,645

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) Pigeon Cove, Rockport

Auction:

Sale #2366 - May 18, 2007

Sold for:

$1,645

Max Kuehne (American, 1880-1968) On the Water

Auction:

American & European Works of Art - Sep 16, 2005

Lot:

645

Sold for:

$3,055

Christie's

Max Kuehne (1880-1968)
Wall Street Ferry
Pr.$13,750

Max Kuehne (1880-1968)

Fishing Sheds, Provincetown

PRICE REALIZED

$8,125

RoGallery

 

Artist: Max Kuehne, German/American (1880 - 1968) 

Title: Untitled - Lakeside Houses Year: circa 1960 Medium: Double-Sided Watercolor, signed l.r. Size: 15 in. x 19.5 in. (38.1 cm x 49.53 cm) Price: $1800

 Don Barese Fine Art and Antiques

Max Kuehne (1880-1968)

Brookylyn Bridge

7" x 9" Oil on Board

1920s

Max Kuehne (1880-1968)

Washington Square, NYC

7" x 9" Oil on Board

1920s

CGFA

Main Street in Gloucester

Impressionism – Expressionism: Art at a Turning Point: Kirchner, Beckmann, Dix, Macke, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir

With Impressionism – Expressionism: Art at a Turning Point, the Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin presents a groundbreaking exhibition at the Alte Nationalgalerie from 22 May to 20 September 2015, deliberately comparing these two artistic styles for the first time. 

The Nationalgalerie was one of the first museums in the world to acquire Impressionist paintings, beginning in 1896; by 1919, the museum had added an extensive collection of Expressionist works. The comprehensive exhibition at the Alte Nationalgalerie will trace the similarities and differences between these two art movements, a process of comparison that began just after 1900. Over 160 Impressionist and Expressionist masterpieces from chiefly German and French artists will be on display, assembled from the collections of the Nationalgalerie and other museums around the world. 

The development of Impressionism is associated with artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in France and with painters including Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, and Max Slevogt in Germany. Works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmitt-Rottluff, Emil Nolde, and Franz Marc epitomize the powerful counter-movement of Expressionism in Germany. 

Occupying the entire middle floor of the Alte Nationalgalerie, the exhibition is arranged according the principle shared motifs of the two movements. The main hall is devoted to the theme of the city; further rooms treat night life in bars, cafes, and restaurants, leisure time spent at the outskirts of the city, as well as themes of family, artists, and art mediators. The motif of the bather opens the exhibition and stands in sharp contrast to the final room with works from 1913 which capture the simmering sense of unease at that time. 

A comprehensive catalogue published by Hirmer Verlag accompanies the exhibition, containing numerous essays and 230 full-colour illustrations. 

No two other styles were as intensely and unsparingly contrasted with one another in their time as Impressionism and Expressionism. Impressionism is inextricably linked with France and with artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Auguste Renoir. The German Impressionism of Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, and Max Slevogt developed in the 1890s as a response to the movement in France. A fierce backlash followed shortly thereafter with the advent of Expressionism, spearheaded by painters such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde, and Franz Marc in Germany. The simultaneous emergence of these two styles provided critics and theorists with an ideal basis to compare the seemingly antithetical cultures of France and Germany. It was gallery owner Herwarth Walden who first spoke of a ‘turning point’ in the transition from Im(pressionism) to Ex(pressionism). 

Despite the stark distinction that would later be drawn between the two styles, Impressionism and early Expressionism share surprisingly many characteristics. Both movements take an anti-academic stance, hold painting en plein air in high regard, portray immediate experiences of light and colour, and focus on the material details of the artists’ surroundings. In addition, subjectivity and the individual character of each artist’s brushwork were highly prized among exponents of both artistic movements. 

The Nationalgalerie is closely tied to the history of artists working in both styles. Through its director, Hugo von Tschudi, the Nationalgalerie was the first museum in the world to acquire Impressionist paintings, beginning in 1896 even before the Paris museums. Tschudi’s successor, Ludwig Justi, on the other hand, amassed a spectacular collection of Expressionist works after 1918 for the new wing of the Nationalgalerie, at the former crown prince’s palace on Unter den Linden. Moreover, Justi developed a ‘School of Seeing’ over many years, which aimed to elucidate the particular characteristics of various artworks by comparing them to one another.


Bathers

Variations on the theme of the bather in pastoral and idyllic settings have been found since antiquity. Bathing figures became a major motif in the paintings of late Impressionism and Expressionism as well. Paul Cézanne's images of unclothed men or women by the water, were not painted from nature but were carefully conceived and staged in his studio. They became the much-admired ideal for artists from both movements. The naked bodies which no longer met ideals of beauty, the absence of a mythological overlay and the reduction of shapes and spatial relationships all had a provocative effect. They inspired Cézanne’s contemporaries Pissarro, Degas, and Renoir from the end of the nineteenth century, and later influenced German artists such as Liebermann, Kirchner, and Pechstein. 

The modernist representations of bathers outdoors in nature, at the Moritzburg lakes and on the beaches of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were based on a dream of a benevolent togetherness, close to nature and far from the stifling rules of the bourgeois world. Other painters looked for true ‘primitiveness’ in the South Seas, among the natives of Tahiti or Papua New Guinea. At the same time, however, the artists’ representations of people bathing, resting, or drying themselves also celebrate the pure joy of living and the appeal of nudity.

Bathers. Dreams of Paradise 

Paul Cézanne Sieben Badende (Sept baigneurs), um 1900 Seven Bathers, circa 1900 Öl auf Leinwand, 38 x 46 cm Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Sammlung Beyeler
Paul Gauguin Tahitianische Fischerinnen (Pêcheuses tahitiennes), 1891 Tahitian Fisherwomen, 1891 Öl auf Leinwand, 71 x 90 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Dauerleihgabe der Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Badende am Strand (Fehmarn), 1913 Bathers at the Shore (Fehmarn), 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 76 x 100 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Max Liebermann Badende Knaben, 1902 Bathing Boys, 1902 Öl auf Leinwand, 65 x 88,5 cm Föhr, Museum Kunst der Westküste
Otto Mueller Das Urteil des Paris, 1910/11 The Judgement of Paris, 1910/11 Leimfarbe auf Rupfen, 179 × 124,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin

Emil Nolde Papua-Jünglinge, 1914 Papuan Youths, 1914 Öl auf Leinwand, 70 x 103,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Max Pechstein Sitzendes Mädchen (Moritzburg), 1910 Seated Girl (Moritzburg), 1910 Öl auf Leinwand, 80 x 70 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Badende mit blondem, offenem Haar (Baigneuse blonde aux cheveux dénoués), um 1903 Bather with Loose Blonde Hair, circa 1903 Öl auf Leinwand, 92,7 x 73,4 cm Wien, Belvedere

City, Suburb, Pedestrians 

Impressionism and Expressionism are urban cultures. Artists from both movements discovered the beauty of the growing metropolises for themselves: from the 1860s, Claude Monet and his fellow Impressionists were inspired by Paris, while from 1900, the Expressionists focused mainly on Berlin. Both cities were a source of artistic innovations in their time. 

Rapidly changing cities with their increasingly busy streets, glittering lights, broad boulevards, and bustling squares became a key motif for artists. In 1863, Charles Baudelaire described a painter wandering through the city as a flâneur: ‘He is looking for that something which you must permit me to call modernity.’ That ‘something’ also included darting pedestrians and cocottes in the city at night, the new means of transport and electric lights. Cityscapes seen by rain, fog or snow helped artists including Camille Pissarro and Lesser Ury, as well as Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, to make a variety of artistic discoveries. The artists’ subjective sensibilities, which were a product of their respective time, are captured in these images. 

The motif of the bridge crops up surprisingly often, including both traditional bridges over rivers and the new railway bridges. Frequently, it is precisely these pictures that testify to a poetic treatment of the cityscape, by means of reflections in the water and the depiction of space in atmospheric tones. 

Max Beckmann Straße bei Nacht, 1913 Street at Night, 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 90 x 70 cm Privatbesitz

Gustave Caillebotte Trocknende Wäsche am Ufer der Seine (Linge séchant au bord de la Seine, Petit Gennevilliers), um 1892 Laundry Drying on the Bank of the Seine, circa 1892 Öl auf Leinwand, 105,5 x 150,5 cm Köln, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Leihgabe Kuratorium und Förderergesellschaft Wallraf-Richartz- Museum/Museum Ludwig e.V.
Otto Dix Straßenlaternen, 1913 Street Lamps, 1913 Öl auf Papier auf Spanplatte, 51,3 x 62,9 cm Dauerleihgabe der Otto Dix Stiftung Vaduz in der Kunstsammlung Gera
Erich Heckel Landschaft bei Dresden, 1910 Landscape near Dresden, 1910 Öl auf Leinwand, 66,5 x 78,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Rheinbrücke in Köln, 1914 Rhine River Bridge in Cologne, 1914 Öl auf Leinwand, 120,5 x 91 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Potsdamer Platz, 1914 Potsdamer Platz, 1914 Öl auf Leinwand, 200 x 150 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben mit Unterstützung der Kulturstiftung der Länder, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, der Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, der Kultur-Stiftung der Deutschen Bank und anderer

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Der Belle-Alliance-Platz Berlin, 1914 Belle-Alliance-Platz, Berlin, 1914 Tempera auf Leinwand, 96 x 85 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Nollendorfplatz, 1912 Nollendorfplatz, 1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 69 x 60 cm Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin
Claude Monet St. Germain l'Auxerrois, 1867 St. Germain l’Auxerrois, 1867 Öl auf Leinwand, 79 x 98 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Claude Monet Charing Cross Bridge, 1899 Charing Cross Bridge, 1899 Öl auf Leinwand, 64,8 x 80,6 cm Madrid, Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Camille Pissarro Der Boulevard Montmartre an einem Wintermorgen (Le Boulevard Montmartre, matin d’hiver), 1897 The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897 Öl auf Leinwand, 64,8 x 81,3 cm NY, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of S. Vietor, in loving memory of Ernest G. Vietor, 1960
Camille Pissarro Boulevard Montmartre bei Nacht (Boulevard Montmartre de nuit), 1897 Boulevard Montmartre at Night, 1897 Öl auf Leinwand, 53,3 x 64,8 cm London, The National Gallery, Bought Courtauld Fund, 1925
Camille Pissarro Le Pont Neuf, 1902 The Pont-Neuf, 1902 Öl auf Leinwand, 54,6 x 64,8 cm Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Out of Doors 

The idea and experience of leisure time developed in the nineteenth century as a result of urbanization and industrialization, which entailed a life with fixed working hours. Leisure was seen as the private part of one’s life, and was regarded as a counterweight to the all-consuming world of work. Peace and quiet, amusing diversions and stimulating time spent together with friends and family offered a change of scene and the chance to relax. Recently constructed railways allowed members of the working class and middle class to travel to the city’s outskirts and into the countryside, away from the noise and stench of the metropolis.

The Impressionists and Expressionists also heeded the call of the countryside and sought to redefine their relationship with nature within the context of recreational spaces. Here, even more than in the city, they employed the technique of painting en plein air using tubes of paint invented around 1840, which dried up less quickly and were easy to transport. River banks, meadows, and gardens, public parks, zoos, and lively spots in restaurants along the Seine in Paris or the Alster lake in Hamburg served as the artists’ subjects. Impressionism and Expressionism were the last modern and comprehensive styles to provide an unmediated, realistic view of ordinary people’s everyday lives.

Out of Doors. The Creation of Leisure 

Marie Bracquemond Die Teestunde (Le Goûter), 1880 Tea Time, 1880 Öl auf Leinwand, 81,5 x 61,5 cm Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
Lovis Corinth Der neue See im Berliner Tiergarten, 1903 Neue See in the Tiergarten, Berlin, 1903 Öl auf Leinwand, 76 x 100,5 cm Kunsthalle Mannheim
Raoul Dufy Hafen (Le Port), 1908 Harbour, 1908 Öl auf Leinwand, 65 x 81 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Erich Heckel Schlafender Pechstein, 1910 Pechstein, Sleeping, 1910 Öl auf Leinwand, 110 x 74 cm Buchheim Museum der Phantasie, Bernried am Starnberger See
Erich Heckel Kanal im Winter, 1913/14 Canal in Winter, 1913/14 Öl auf Leinwand, 70 x 80 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Grüne Dame im Gartencafé, 1912 Woman in Green in Garden Café, 1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 89,5 x 66,5 cm Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein – Westfalen
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Haus unter Bäumen (Fehmarn), 1913 House beneath Trees (Fehmarn), 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 90,5 x 121 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

August Macke Spaziergang in Blumen, 1912 Walk among Flowers, 1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 63,5 x 48,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
August Macke Sonniger Weg, 1913 Sunny Path, 1913 Öl auf Pappe, 50 x 30 cm Münster, LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Westfälisches Landesmuseum
Edouard Manet Beim Père Lathuille, im Freien (Chez le père Lathuille), 1879 At Père Lathuille ́s, 1879 Öl auf Leinwand, 92 x 112 cm Collection du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tournai, Belgien
Claude Monet Die Barke in Giverny (En norvégienne), um 1887 In the Rowing Boat at Giverny, circa 1887 Öl auf Leinwand, 97,5 x 130,5 cm Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Geschenk der Prinzessin Edmond de Polignac, 1947
Auguste Renoir Im Sommer (L’Eté), 1868 In the Summer, 1868 Öl auf Leinwand, 85 x 59 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Auguste Renoir Blühender Kastanienbaum (Le Marronnier en fleurs), 1881 Chestnut Tree in Bloom, 1881 Öl auf Leinwand, 71 x 89 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Maurice de Vlaminck Die Brücke von Chatou (Le Pont de Chatou), 1907 The Chatou Bridge, 1907 Öl auf Leinwand, 68 x 96 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Villas and Country Homes

The urge to travel to the countryside is as old as the city itself, dating back to antiquity. Representations of villas in the verdant locations can be found in Pliny and Vitruvius, forming the models on which architects and land owners based their country estates as late as the nineteenth century. Most of these homes were surrounded by carefully landscaped gardens and parks and were viewed as places of relaxation and repose. Shielded from the outside world, these estates served as retreats from the hectic bustle of the city, offering their owners not only a chance to connect with nature but also to increase their social standing. 

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the garden became a popular and important motif for the avant-garde due to purely artistic reasons. Representations of gardens were not subject to an established tradition but rather were set in opposition to the generic canons of academic painting. Many artists including Claude Monet, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, and Emil Nolde acquired a

garden of their own. These gardens provided with a place to linger and offered the painter an appropriate range of subjects he might study under the most varied light and weather conditions. The phenomenon of the painter’s garden stems from this period. The play of colours itself was easily as important as observing the light and the effect of the atmosphere on the colours.

Max Liebermann Landhaus in Hilversum, 1901 Country House in Hilversum, 1901 Öl auf Leinwand, 65 x 80 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Edouard Manet Landhaus in Rueil (La Maison à Rueil), 1882 The House at Rueil, 1882 Öl auf Leinwand, 71,5 x 92,3 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Diversions  The variety of establishments found in cities offered numerous options for socializing. Beginning in the 1850s, song and dance interludes offered by restaurants and known as ‘café-concerts’ were especially popular. Such venues supplied the stage for the female clown Cha-U-Kao to perform, for the chanson singer Emélie Bécat to sing risqué songs, and for can-can dancers to flounce their skirts. Vaudeville theatres such as the Moulin Rouge or the dance hall at the Moulin de la Galette in the Montmartre district of Paris also proved attractive.  Ballets, operas and operettas, cabarets, theatres, fairgrounds, and circuses were part of a firmly established entertainment industry. Conversations over drinks in smoky pubs and restaurants led to fleeting sexual encounters – and lively artistic exchanges. Ludwig Meidner describes the coffeehouse as a preferred location for meetings, diversions, and pleasures. Yet an oppressive undercurrent often permeated this tremendous bustle, which many painters found particularly striking and worthy of representation.  In 1863, Charles Baudelaire described the artist Constantin Guys, the dégagé flâneur of nighttime Paris, as a ‘painter of modern life’. Kirchner and Nolde recorded their experiences exploring Berlin’s nightlife for inspiration in very similar terms. Diversions. Cafés, Dancers, and Cabaret Life

Edgar Degas Tänzerinnen im Probensaal (Danseuses au foyer), 1895/96 Dancers at Rehearsal, 1895/96 Öl auf Leinwand, 70,5 x 100,5 cm Wuppertal, Von der Heydt-Museum
Vincent van Gogh Le Moulin de la Galette, 1886 Le Moulin de la Galette, 1886 Öl auf Leinwand, 38 x 46,2 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Zwei Tänzerinnen, 1910/11 Two Dancers, 1910/11 Öl auf Leinwand, 64,8 x 59,6 cm Kochel am See, Franz Marc Museum, Dauerleihgabe aus Privatbesitz
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Varieté (Englisches Tanzpaar), 1910/26 Cabaret; Dancing English Couple, 1910/26 Öl auf Leinwand, 151 x 120 cm Städel-Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Im Cafégarten, 1914 In the Café Garden, 1914 Öl auf Leinwand, 70,5 x 76 cm Berlin, Brücke-Museum

August Macke Pierrot, 1913 Pierrot, 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 75 x 90 cm Kunsthalle Bielefeld
Emil Nolde Tanz II, 1911 Dance II, 1911 Öl auf Leinwand, 104,5 x 61 cm Nolde-Stiftung Seebüll
Max Pechstein Doppelbildnis, 1910 Double Portrait, 1910 Öl auf Leinwand, 89,5 x 89,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Weinstube, 1913 Wine Bar, 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 76 x 84 cm Berlin, Brücke-Museum

Couples and Relationships 

 

The traditional roles of men and women shifted alongside the social and economic changes of the nineteenth century. This period gave rise to the concept of the distinct individual. Popular magazines and novels were filled with such themes as marriages of convenience or love, romantic affairs, and personal tragedies. Writers created striking psychological portraits of failed marriages: the era of Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, and Hedda Gabler commenced in the 1850s. 

French and German Impressionism and early Expressionism originated from similar social conditions. Both movements produced a surprising number of pictures of couples and families, many of which were remarkably large in size. In a deliberate rejection of a Biedermeier-era family idyll, these paintings do not simply reflect reality, but rather show new models for familial roles. They emphasize the specific character of the individual rather than a couple’s togetherness or a family’s sense of belonging. Those painted are often turning or looking in different directions. Manet’s work, for example, is characterized by the vacant gaze of some of his subjects. Thus, in various ways, these pictures reflect the shifting gender dynamic of the late nineteenth century.

Max Beckmann Unterhaltung, 1908 Conversation, 1908 Öl auf Leinwand, 177 x 168,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Max Beckmann Doppelbildnis Max Beckmann und Minna Beckmann-Tube, 1909 Double Portrait of Max Beckmann and Minna Beckmann-Tube, 1909 Öl auf Leinwand, 143,5 x 112 cm Halle (Saale), Kunstmuseum Moritzburg

Lovis Corinth Familie Rumpf, 1901 The Family of the Painter Fritz Rumpf, 1901 Öl auf Leinwand, 113 x 140 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Selbstbildnis mit Mädchen, 1914/15 Self-Portrait with Girl, 1914/15 Öl auf Leinwand, 60 x 49 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Skizzierender Künstler mit zwei Frauen / Künstlergruppe, 1913 Artist Sketching with Two Women; Artists, 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 70 x 80 cm Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum
Edouard Manet Im Wintergarten (Dans la serre), 1878/79 In the Conservatory, 1878/79  Franz Marc: Kühe, gelb-rot-grün, 1912. Öl auf Leinwand, 115 x 150 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Auguste Renoir Der Nachmittag der Kinder in Wargemont (L’Après-midi des enfants à Wargemont), 1884 Children’s Afternoon at Wargemont, 1884 Öl auf Leinwand, 127 x 173 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Artists 

Impressionists and Expressionists alike painted themselves in numerous pair and family portraits. Similarly, the standalone artist self-portrait is a recording of a particular moment. It simultaneously expresses an idealized role and functions as an autobiographical statement. Max Slevogt shows himself as a youthful artist, unconventional and approachable. Lovis Corinth stares critically at his mirror image – he finds himself at a crossroads in his life. Max Liebermann, in contrast, consistently represents himself as self-confident. Here, he depicts himself standing in front of his own paintings, wearing a white painter’s apron over a suit. In his self-portrait, Expressionist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff set himself apart from the ‘superficial’ paintwork of the Impressionists. A monocle glints in one eye, while his other eye is closed. And Ludwig Meidner, who belonged to the group known as the ‘Pathetiker’, looks alert and piercing in his self-portrait.

Portraits of fellow painter friends are less likely to contain this element of scrutiny. Corinth painted Berlin Secession founder Walter Leistikow as the epitome of the ‘en plein air’ painter. August Macke portrayed his friend Franz Marc as a discriminating interpreter of the world, with great empathy for animals and his fellow man. 

Lovis Corinth Selbstbildnis (Selbstporträt ohne Kragen), 1900 Self-Portrait (without Collar), 1900 Öl auf Leinwand, 73,5 x 60 cm Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin
Lovis Corinth Der Maler Leistikow, 1900 Portrait of the Painter Walter Leistikow, 1900 Öl auf Leinwand, 60 x 49 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
August Macke Bildnis Franz Marc, 1910 Portrait of Franz Marc, 1910 Öl auf Karton, 50 x 38 cm\

Art Mediators. Dandies, Connoisseurs, Patrons, and Collectors 

 

Paul and Bruno Cassirer, Julius Meier-Graefe, Hermann Bahr, Herwarth Walden, Rosa Schapire, and many other art lovers promoted new trends outside the official academic art market in Wilhelmine Germany.

Collectors and dealers, curators and critics made a strong case for Impressionism and Expressionism. Hugo von Tschudi, then the director of the Nationalgalerie, was important for both art movements. He was the first to buy paintings by French Impressionists for a German museum. And, around the same time, the almanac Der Blaue Reiter, edited by the Expressionists Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, was dedicated to him. 

Critics and theorists engaged with both Impressionism and Expressionism, reaching a wide audience through their books, catalogues, articles, and reviews. Many of these art mediators cultivated friendly relationships with the artists they supported, collecting their work and commissioning portraits. The artists’ vivid portraits depict these proponents of Impressionism and Expressionism oscillating between two quite different roles, namely, as the cosmopolitan dandy and the visionary prophet. The portraits record these critics and theorists as intellectual partners on a shared path towards innovation.

Lovis Corinth
Edvard Munch Harry Graf Kessler, 1906 Harry Graf Kessler, 1906 Öl auf Leinwand, 200 x 84 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Emil Nolde Herr Sch. (Bildnis Gustav Schiefler), 1915 Portrait of Gustav Schiefler, 1915 Öl auf Leinwand, 82,5 x 73 cm Berlin, Brücke-Museum

Still Lifes 

In 1900, it was a firm principle of modern aesthetics that ‘a beet painted well is better than a poorly painted Madonna’, to quote Max Liebermann. The hierarchy of genres was no longer irrefutable – the subject of a painting had become secondary. ‘A bunch of asparagus, a bouquet of roses – these sufficed for a masterpiece’. 

Thanks to Gustave Courbet and the Leibl school in Munich, the still life took on a new significance: It became a place for artistic experimentation. In still lifes, artists addressed painterly questions of composition, colour, and technique. Perspective, light, surfaces, contrasts of colour and shape could be varied and methodically studied even more easily in the controlled environment of the studio than when painting en plein air or when working with a live model. Artists selected familiar items such as apples, flowers, masks, or earthenware based on their forms and colours and positioned these objects in distinctive arrangements. 

The subject itself was less important than the act of painting; the still life became the ‘touchstone’ of the artist (Edouard Manet). 

Impressionism and Expressionism shared this idea, although each movement adapted the still life to its respective style. The Impressionists’ guiding light was Manet, while for the Expressionists it was Paul Cézanne, whom Julius Meier-Graefe dubbed the ‘father of modernism’.

Paul Cézanne Stillleben mit Blumen und Früchten (Fleurs dans un pot de gingembre et fruits), um 1890 Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, circa 1890 Öl auf Leinwand, 66 x 81,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Alexej von Jawlensky Stilleben mit Blumen und Früchten, um 1910 Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, circa 1910 Öl auf Pappe, 49,5 x 53,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin

Edouard Manet Der Fliederstrauß (Lilas blanc dans un vase de verre), um 1882 Lilacs in a Glass Vase, circa 1882 Öl auf Leinwand, 54 x 42 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Behind closed doors 
 

Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1895 play Intérieur instances the importance and relevance of the concept of the interior, which was experienced and staged as a protected, ‘holy’ alternative to public space. In the early modern industrial age, interior space was more important than ever before for people’s ideas of living and selfhood. Women, from whom the emancipation movement was still far off, were intimately acquainted with the indoor world.

 

This is why Impressionists and Expressionists alike most often depicted women in their interior scenes: some preferred women engaging in domestic activities and personal tasks, while others mainly showed woman as nudes in a studio. Even models whom the painters knew personally remained largely formal subjects through whom artists might study the relationships between colour and form or between bodies and space. Renoir painted women, in his own words, as ‘beautiful fruit’, and as spatial still lifes. Degas and Kirchner sought to arrest movements that were natural and unfeigned, even commonplace. Fleeting ‘depictions of life’ (Lovis Corinth) were captured in these pictures, painted as if peeping through a ‘keyhole’ (Edgar Degas). Thus the most intimate (and most familiar) moments form the alluring, at times voyeuristic, subjects of both Impressionist and Expressionist interior paintings.

August Macke Die Frau des Künstlers, 1912 Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, 1912 Öl auf Pappe, 105 x 81 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch das Land Berlin
Berthe Morisot Der Spiegel (La Psyché), 1876 The Cheval Glass, 1876 Öl auf Leinwand, 64 x 54 cm Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Gabrielle bei der Lektüre (Gabrielle lisant), 1906 Gabrielle, Reading, 1906 Öl auf Leinwand, 55 x 46,5 cm Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle

Animals

Given the strictures of bourgeois life, the desire to return to nature as a site of origin factors into the many representations of animals in Impressionism and Expressionism. The naturalness of these creatures appealed to artists. The animal was an unencumbered subject with no associated greater significance and it served as a proving ground for a new definition of art. ‘Intangible ideas express themselves in tangible forms,’ wrote August Macke, ‘made tangible through our senses as a star, as thunder, as a flower’ – or, one might add, as an animal. 

German Impressionists discovered animals wherever they looked – in the countryside, on the racecourse, in the zoo, and in cages – and were inspired by a hitherto underappreciated wealth of colours, shapes, and movements. These artists merged representations of animals with their environments. 

For Franz Marc, the animal was a being with a soul and even became a more general symbol of life. He wanted to paint ‘the animal’s own sense of experience’. From 1913, animals became a means for Marc, Nolde, and Dix to express diffuse yet tangible fears. Curt Herrmann, for example, painted a flamingo, which had recently died in a zoo, as an allegory for the war in 1917.

August Macke Landschaft mit Kühen und Kamel, 1914 Landscape with Cows and Camel, 1914 Öl auf Leinwand, 47 x 54 cm Kunsthaus Zürich

Max Liebermann Reiter am Meer nach links, 1900 Rider on the Beach, Facing Left, 1900 Öl auf Pappe, 70,5 x 49 cm Nationalgalerie Prag
Franz Marc Kühe, gelb-rot-grün, 1912 Cows, Yellow/Red/Green, 1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 62 x 87,5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, München

Premonitions of War. 1913  Even in the years before the First World War, Wilhelmine empire society was deeply divided, split between bureaucrats, nationalists, and social revolutionaries. Friedrich Nietzsche had critiqued the decline of European culture and morality, questioning his contemporaries’ belief in progress. Anthroposophy, mysticism, socialism, and depth psychology supplied alternative models for explaining society.  A series of disasters – including the earthquake in Messina in 1908, the appearance of Halley’s comet in 1910, and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 – made an apocalypse feel threateningly close at hand. The second Moroccan crisis in 1911 and the Balkan Wars in 1912/13 fuelled this simmering feeling of unease. This powerless sense that the ‘end of days’ (Georg Heym) had arrived was in constant conflict with a societal desire for revolution and renewal.  The avant-garde flourished in this atmosphere. The ‘Neue Club‘ was founded in Berlin in 1909. At the club’s ‘Neopathetic Cabaret’, controversial author Frank Wedekind gave readings, as did Heinrich Mann and Franz Kafka, and Arnold Schönberg’s piano pieces were performed there as well. Georg Heym and Jakob van Hoddis forged their ominous visions into powerful figurative verse. And Expressionist painters created lasting images of the era’s lurking sense of uncertainty.
Otto Dix Sonnenaufgang, 1913 Sunrise, 1913 Öl auf Pappe, 50,5 x 66 cm Städtische Galerie Dresden – Kunstsammlung, Museen der Stadt Dresden, erworben mit Unterstützung der Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, der Kulturstiftung der Länder, der Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung und der Rudolf-August Oetker Stiftung, 2012
Ferdinand Hodler Der Redner, 1912 The Orator, 1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 251 x 143,5 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, erworben durch den Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie
Franz Marc Die Wölfe (Balkankrieg), 1913 The Wolves (Balkan War), 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 70,8 x 139,7 cm Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Charles Clifton, James G. Forsyth and George W. Goodyear Funds, 1951
Emil Nolde Schlachtfeld, 1913 Battlefield, 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 106 x 121 cm Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Jakob Steinhardt Die Stadt, 1913 The City, 1913 Öl auf Leinwand, 61 x 40 cm Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie  From the NY Times: Ms. Wesenberg used the different-size galleries within the museum to group together works focused on 12 different themes. In the opening section, called “Bathers. Dreams of Paradise,” Max Liebermann’s “Bathing Boys” from 1902 hangs inches away from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Bathers at the Shore,” from 1913, confronting visitors with the parallel subject matter of people depicted splashing in waves, and the stark differences of the rendering of the seashore and the figures. While Kirchner’s undulating waves fill the canvas, and more abstract figures speak to a freedom of movement, Lieberman’s stark horizon and more linear figures create the stiff “appearance of a sports class,” Ms. Wesenberg said. Although the curator moved away from the original idea of grouping all of the paintings in pairs, several key sets are sprinkled throughout the other sections, stressing the opportunity to compare and contrast. Another example is the pairing of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s lush 1881 painting “Chestnut Tree in Bloom,” with the green of the riverbank melting into the motion of the river, with Erich Heckel’s “Canal in Winter” from 1913-14, depicting the heavy, dark lines of the trees arching, standing in snow-covered banks in Berlin’s Tiergarten. Special attention was given to women, both as artists and subjects, said Ms. Wesenberg, who included works by lesser-known female Impressionists, such as a picture of a Parisian courtyard, “Houses in Montmartre” by Maria Slavona, and a portrait of a woman standing before a mirror in “The Cheval Glass” by Berthe Morisot. Throughout the sections, the motif of the self-confident, urban woman as she moves through the city and sits by herself appears frequently in the renderings of the Impressionists, as well as the Expressionists. Ms. Wesenberg noted how the woman featured in Manet’s “In the Conservatory,” from 1878-79, with her detached gaze and umbrella pointed toward her husband, was considered scandalous at the time.