Die Birkenallee in Wannsee nach NordWesten, 1920, Max Liebermann, German, [no. 22-03-19]

Die Birkenallee in Wannsee nach NordWesten, 1920, Max Liebermann
ARTWORK Collection
[no. 22-03-19] Max Liebermann was a German painter and printmaker of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany. The son of a Jewish fabric manufacturer turned banker from Berlin, Liebermann grew up in an imposing town house alongside the Brandenburg Gate. He used his own inherited wealth to assemble an impressive collection of French Impressionist works. He later chose scenes of the bourgeoisie, as well as aspects of his garden near Lake Wannsee, as motifs for his paintings. In Berlin, he became a famous painter of portraits; his work is especially close in spirit to Édouard Manet. Noted for his portraits (he did more than 200 commissioned ones over the years, including of Albert Einstein and Paul von Hindenburg), Liebermann also painted himself from time to time.
Beginning in 1920 he was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts. In 1933 he resigned when the academy decided to no longer exhibit works by Jewish artists, before he would have been forced to do so under laws restricting the rights of Jews. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.Liebermann died on February 8, 1935, at his home on Berlin’s Pariser Platz, near the Brandenburg Gate.