Das Dreigestirn des Deutschen Impressionismus

It took nearly twenty years for Impressionism to make its way from Paris to Berlin – even though Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth were living in the French capital when the Impressionists were causing such an uproar with the first exhibitions of their own. Why were German painters so slow to react to the innovative painting style of their French fellow artists? Was it the one of the after-effects of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71? It is certainly true that the political enmities it whipped up were palpable in every corner of society.

And when German Impressionism finally matured between 1900 and 1910, what distinguished it from its French role model? It is evident that Liebermann, Corinth and Slevogt remained more faithful to form than their Gallic neighbours. Observe how these painters, for all that their brush-strokes took on a life of their own, still kept an eye on the motif. The object never completely dissolves into light and colour. Liebermann, Corinth and Slevogt had all undergone a strictly academic training, and they did not dispense with preliminary sketches. They seem to have started out from the form before they thought about the colour.

In 1899, the three painters set up the art association known as the Berlin Secession, in which they participated as artists, jury and management. To quote art dealer Paul Cassirer, they were the ”triumvirate of German Impressionism”.

At the same time the paintings displayed here allow a private encounter with the artists: Liebermann depicts himself in his early sixties, critically self-questioning. In his own self-portrait to mark his 60th birthday, Corinth gives himself a penetrating stare. In addition, the landscapes provide an opportunity to look over the artists‘ shoulders as, on holiday and free from the constraints of society commissions, they were able to devote their intimate creative powers to their art: compare for yourself how form and colour differ from the French model.