Kartoffelernte

1873

Gussow, Makart and the decision to leave Germany

When Liebermann set out to paint Weimar peasants in a beet field, Karl Gussow cynically advised him not to paint the picture at all, and he scraped the paint off the canvas. After only a couple of days with Hans Makart in Vienna, he decided to leave Germany, whose art scene seemed to him backward and dusty.

December 1873

Move to Paris: a studio in Montmartre

In the art capital of the world Liebermann hoped to make contact with the leading realists and Impressionists, but the French painters refused to have anything to do with “the German”.

1874

“The Goose Pluckers” at the Paris Salon

The painting was accepted for the Salon, but the press, mainly for nationalist reasons, gave it negative reviews.

summer 1874

Summer in Barbizon: Millet, Corot, Daubigny

In the forest of Fontainebleau Liebermann studied the methods of the Barbizon painters — Troyon, Daubigny, Corot and above all Millet — and turned away from Munkácsy's heavy manner. There he began “Potato Harvest in Barbizon”, which he completed only years later.

1875

Zandvoort and Haarlem: copying Frans Hals

Three months in Zandvoort and copying paintings by Frans Hals in Haarlem helped Liebermann search for his own style: Hals's vigorous brushwork influenced his later work as much as the French Impressionists did. In the autumn, back in Paris and in a larger studio, he painted his first picture of bathing fishermen's children, a subject he would return to more than once.

summer 1876

Amsterdam: Unger, Israëls and the Hague School

In Amsterdam Liebermann met the etcher William Unger, who introduced him to Jozef Israëls and the Hague School. Professor August Allebé took him to the Portuguese Synagogue, which led the artist to reflect on his Jewish roots.