A House in Laren
  • Max Liebermann
  • Berlin 1847 - 1935
  • A House in Laren, circa 1896
  • Black chalk, partly heightened with white, on paper,
  • signed on the lower right:
    MLiebermann (interlaced)
  • 257 × 369 mm
Provenance:
Franz Koenigs, Amsterdam (1881-1941), (Lugt suppl. 1023a)
C. van der Waals-Koenigs, Heemstede
Exhibition:
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam,
inv. no. M51 (on loan)
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin 1979, and
Haus der Kunst, Munich 1980:
Max Liebermann in seiner Zeit,
cat. no. 288, ill. p. 559

Max Liebermann first visited the Netherlands in 1871 and was fascinated by the unusual landscape, the cities with their venerable culture, and the rough everyday life of the people. These impressions would be a life-long source of inspiration, and up until the outbreak of the First World War he would henceforth spend a few weeks near the Dutch coast nearly every year.

In the years 1884 to 1900, Liebermann also undertook regular excursions of several days each to the village of Laren, where he sought to capture the atmosphere of village life in countless drawings and paintings.

The farmhouse shown here, almost hidden behind hedges and tall elm trees, recurs often as subject in Liebermann’s works from this time. It likely the so-called Old Wives’ House on the Brink, the old village square and former meadow of Laren1. Liebermann loved this large, tree-lined square, which was also the site of the Hotel Hamdorff, where he always took lodgings.

We are grateful to Margreet Nouwen for confirming the authenticity of this drawing.

  1. see Max Liebermann:
    Under the trees (Altweiberhaus in Laren), 1892
    etching, 130 × 181 mm,
    Gustav Schiefler: Max Liebermann, The Graphic Work. 1876-1923,
    4th edition, San Francisco 1991, no. 24