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拍品專文
Painted in 1913, Max Liebermann’s Strandterrasse in Noordwijk (Huis ter Duin) is an idyllic depiction of holidaymakers in the fashionable seaside town of Noordwijk in Holland. Elegantly dressed families and couples gather on the picturesque outdoor terrace of the hotel, Huis ter Duin, where Liebermann himself stayed during a six week stint in the popular holiday resort that year. Hotel guests relax in their chairs, amicably conversing, with plates and coffee cups on their tables before them in a scene of merry contentment. Other figures lean against the railings, gazing out at the expansive seascape before them. Above the terrace, the Dutch and German flags flutter in the wind, a nod to the multitudes of well-to-do German families who regularly descended on the town for their summer holidays.
In contrast to Liebermann’s early paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, where motifs were predominantly taken from rural life, his subsequent work was characterised by themes drawn from urban leisure. These works followed the example of the Impressionists, such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who had overturned the hierarchy of subject matter in French painting at the end of the Second Empire. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, Liebermann similarly tuned his attention to scenes of bourgeois leisure, depicting elegant families strolling through zoos and parks, or enjoying the sandy beaches of Holland, and crowds of patrons in picturesque beer gardens or open air restaurants, as well as polo matches and horse races.
It is these visions of blissful summer harmony that epitomise Liebermann’s pictorial output at this mature peak of his artistic career. The previous year, 1912, Liebermann had turned sixty five, and received a myriad of international accolades and honours. As a painter at the height of his powers, his most expressive pictures from this time also display a mastery of light effects and a lively Impressionistic handling of paint. With a careful blend of quick, dynamic brushstrokes and sweeping expanses of colour, the artist perfectly captures the hazy brightness of a windy summer’s day by the seaside in Strandterrasse in Noordwijk (Huis ter Duin). Liebermann conjures the vast summertime sky with swirling, gestural brushstrokes, imbuing the scene with the delightful sensation of a soft breeze, a feeling furthered by billowing flags and the silvery-blue shadows that dance across the ground of the terrace.
The present work holds particular significance in the artist’s oeuvre, dating from the artist’s last trip to his beloved Holland, as the First World War broke out the following year. Liebermann had first visited Holland in 1871 at the age of twenty-four, beginning a long and artistically fruitful relationship with the country which was to last for more than forty years, and provide the artist with a generous supply of painterly motifs. He first came to the picturesque seaside resort of Noordwijk in 1905 and visited almost annually for the subsequent eight years, completing a number of compositions, some peopled with figures on the beach, some with swimmers, and others were landscapes of the rolling dunes. He began staying in the glamorous Huis ter Duin hotel on the recommendation of the influential modern art dealer and publisher Paul Cassirer. The hotel, which had been purchased and renovated by Heinrich Tappenbeck in 1887, had swiftly become a fashionable hotspot for wealthy German families. Seaside holidays had risen in popularity over the course of the Nineteenth Century driven by the idea of sea air being beneficial for one’s physical health. Bustling with guests, the terrace in Strandterrasse in Noordwijk (Huis ter Duin) reflects the contemporary fashion for these sojourns, and Liebermann exquisitely captures the cheerful and laidback feeling of leisure. The present work was acquired directly from the artist by Cassirer, and appears at auction now for the first time, having been held in an esteemed private collection for the last seventy years.
In contrast to Liebermann’s early paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, where motifs were predominantly taken from rural life, his subsequent work was characterised by themes drawn from urban leisure. These works followed the example of the Impressionists, such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who had overturned the hierarchy of subject matter in French painting at the end of the Second Empire. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, Liebermann similarly tuned his attention to scenes of bourgeois leisure, depicting elegant families strolling through zoos and parks, or enjoying the sandy beaches of Holland, and crowds of patrons in picturesque beer gardens or open air restaurants, as well as polo matches and horse races.
It is these visions of blissful summer harmony that epitomise Liebermann’s pictorial output at this mature peak of his artistic career. The previous year, 1912, Liebermann had turned sixty five, and received a myriad of international accolades and honours. As a painter at the height of his powers, his most expressive pictures from this time also display a mastery of light effects and a lively Impressionistic handling of paint. With a careful blend of quick, dynamic brushstrokes and sweeping expanses of colour, the artist perfectly captures the hazy brightness of a windy summer’s day by the seaside in Strandterrasse in Noordwijk (Huis ter Duin). Liebermann conjures the vast summertime sky with swirling, gestural brushstrokes, imbuing the scene with the delightful sensation of a soft breeze, a feeling furthered by billowing flags and the silvery-blue shadows that dance across the ground of the terrace.
The present work holds particular significance in the artist’s oeuvre, dating from the artist’s last trip to his beloved Holland, as the First World War broke out the following year. Liebermann had first visited Holland in 1871 at the age of twenty-four, beginning a long and artistically fruitful relationship with the country which was to last for more than forty years, and provide the artist with a generous supply of painterly motifs. He first came to the picturesque seaside resort of Noordwijk in 1905 and visited almost annually for the subsequent eight years, completing a number of compositions, some peopled with figures on the beach, some with swimmers, and others were landscapes of the rolling dunes. He began staying in the glamorous Huis ter Duin hotel on the recommendation of the influential modern art dealer and publisher Paul Cassirer. The hotel, which had been purchased and renovated by Heinrich Tappenbeck in 1887, had swiftly become a fashionable hotspot for wealthy German families. Seaside holidays had risen in popularity over the course of the Nineteenth Century driven by the idea of sea air being beneficial for one’s physical health. Bustling with guests, the terrace in Strandterrasse in Noordwijk (Huis ter Duin) reflects the contemporary fashion for these sojourns, and Liebermann exquisitely captures the cheerful and laidback feeling of leisure. The present work was acquired directly from the artist by Cassirer, and appears at auction now for the first time, having been held in an esteemed private collection for the last seventy years.