Lot 3246 - A213 Art Impressionniste & Moderne - vendredi, 27. juin 2025, 16h30
MAX LIEBERMANN
(1847 Berlin 1935)
Avenue with fountain. 1931.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated lower left: Liebermann 1931.
50 × 40 cm.
Provenance:
- Schuch collection, Berlin, before 1949.
- Private collection, Munich.
- Sale A. Weinmüller, Munich, 3.10.1963, Lot 1029.
- Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction thence by descent.
Literature:
Max Liebermann is a master of depicting the allée. The artist deftly handles the play of light and shadow like no one else, as well as the suggestion of depth through a sweeping path lined with trees where figures enliven the scenery. The present work demonstrates this as well.
The focus of the composition, however, is the white fountain at the center to which the avenue leads, commanding all the attention. Like a water sprite, it towers high in the air, revealing only a small area of sky, its blue forming a beautiful contrast to the white and green, to complete the picture.
The origin of this motif is a landmark located within Sanssouci Park in the palace gardens of Potsdam, which still attracts numerous visitors today: the Great Fountain, which shoots 38 meters into the air, below the vineyard terraces and the palace. The main avenue leading straight to it is in fact about two kilometers long.
Commissioned under Frederick the Great in the mid-18th century, the park was expanded and redesigned under Frederick William IV. The latter finally succeeded in bringing water from the reservoir on the Ruinenberg, something Frederick the Great hadn't been able to achieve a hundred years earlier. In 1842, a steam engine was put into operation for this purpose, and a pumping station was built especially for it at the water source, on Havel Bay.
This steam engine house, built under the direction of Ludwig Persius, with its minaret for a chimney, is a unique instance of Orientalizing architecture in Potsdam, which has been open to the public as a museum since 1985.
The focus of the composition, however, is the white fountain at the center to which the avenue leads, commanding all the attention. Like a water sprite, it towers high in the air, revealing only a small area of sky, its blue forming a beautiful contrast to the white and green, to complete the picture.
The origin of this motif is a landmark located within Sanssouci Park in the palace gardens of Potsdam, which still attracts numerous visitors today: the Great Fountain, which shoots 38 meters into the air, below the vineyard terraces and the palace. The main avenue leading straight to it is in fact about two kilometers long.
Commissioned under Frederick the Great in the mid-18th century, the park was expanded and redesigned under Frederick William IV. The latter finally succeeded in bringing water from the reservoir on the Ruinenberg, something Frederick the Great hadn't been able to achieve a hundred years earlier. In 1842, a steam engine was put into operation for this purpose, and a pumping station was built especially for it at the water source, on Havel Bay.
This steam engine house, built under the direction of Ludwig Persius, with its minaret for a chimney, is a unique instance of Orientalizing architecture in Potsdam, which has been open to the public as a museum since 1985.
CHF 100 000 / 150 000 | (€ 103 090 / 154 640)
Vendu pour CHF 131 250 (frais inclus)