IN FOCUS. COLLECTED STORIES

Liebermann's works and their paths

Where do the works we exhibit at the Liebermann Villa originate? As a privately run museum, we rely on the generous support of private collectors. Works by Max Liebermann are constantly being generously offered to us as permanent loans, allowing us to vary and rearrange our exhibition so that every visit is worthwhile. From 1 February to 12 May our focus will be on individual gifts and permanent loans, as well as Max Liebermann’s letters. In this ‘In Focus’ exhibition, we explore individual family histories and trace the paths the works have taken to reach us at Wannsee.

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Highlights

Gartenlokal in Laren
Max Liebermann, Gartenlokal in Laren, um 1903, Fondation Sonia et Edward Kossoy, Genf, Dauerleihgabe, © Foto: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin
Max Liebermann, Boote am Wannsee
Max Liebermann, Boote am Wannsee, um 1924, Pastell, Privatsammlung, Dauerleihgabe, © Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft Berlin, Foto: Thomas Lingens
Max Liebermann, Die Enkelin im Kinderwagen nach rechts
Max Liebermann, Die Enkelin im Kinderwagen nach rechts, 1918, Öl auf Leinwand, Fondation Sonia et Edward Kossoy, Genf, Dauerleihgabe, © Foto: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Toni
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Toni (Antonie Amalie) Liebermann, geb. Reichenheim (1850-1916), 1917, Pastell auf Leinwand, © Foto: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin
Max Lieberman, Blick auf den Eingang des Landhauses mit Blumenstauden am Gärtnerhaus
Max Lieberman, Blick auf den Eingang des Landhauses mit Blumenstauden am Gärtnerhaus, um 1930, Öl auf Leinwand, Nachlass Gretchen Whitman, Dauerleihgabe, © Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft Berlin
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Dr. Otto Frentzel
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Dr. Otto Frentzel, 1911, Öl auf Leinwand, Familien-Schultz-Frentzel-Stiftung, Dauerleihgabe, © Foto: Julia Jungfer
Max Liebermann, Kaffeegarten in Wildbad
Max Liebermann, Kaffeegarten in Wildbad (im Schwarzwald), 1893, Tuschfederzeichnung auf Papier, Dauerleihgabe, © Privatbesitz
Gartenlokal in Laren
Max Liebermann, Gartenlokal in Laren, um 1903, Fondation Sonia et Edward Kossoy, Genf, Dauerleihgabe, © Foto: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin
Max Liebermann, Boote am Wannsee
Max Liebermann, Boote am Wannsee, um 1924, Pastell, Privatsammlung, Dauerleihgabe, © Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft Berlin, Foto: Thomas Lingens
Max Liebermann, Die Enkelin im Kinderwagen nach rechts
Max Liebermann, Die Enkelin im Kinderwagen nach rechts, 1918, Öl auf Leinwand, Fondation Sonia et Edward Kossoy, Genf, Dauerleihgabe, © Foto: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Toni
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Toni (Antonie Amalie) Liebermann, geb. Reichenheim (1850-1916), 1917, Pastell auf Leinwand, © Foto: Oliver Ziebe, Berlin
Max Lieberman, Blick auf den Eingang des Landhauses mit Blumenstauden am Gärtnerhaus
Max Lieberman, Blick auf den Eingang des Landhauses mit Blumenstauden am Gärtnerhaus, um 1930, Öl auf Leinwand, Nachlass Gretchen Whitman, Dauerleihgabe, © Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft Berlin
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Dr. Otto Frentzel
Max Liebermann, Bildnis Dr. Otto Frentzel, 1911, Öl auf Leinwand, Familien-Schultz-Frentzel-Stiftung, Dauerleihgabe, © Foto: Julia Jungfer
Max Liebermann, Kaffeegarten in Wildbad
Max Liebermann, Kaffeegarten in Wildbad (im Schwarzwald), 1893, Tuschfederzeichnung auf Papier, Dauerleihgabe, © Privatbesitz

ENGLISH WALL TEXTS

Introduction

In this exhibition, we offer you a glimpse behind the scenes of the Liebermann-Villa as a privately supported museum. As an institution without state funding, we rely especially on the generous support of individuals in addition to loans from public collections. How do works from private hands make their way into our museum? Where do they come from? And can I also support the Liebermann-Villa with a loan?

Fortunately, works by the artist are repeatedly offered to us as loans. They regularly enrich and change the presentation, so there is always something new to discover. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the lenders who make their Liebermann works available to us for loan.

In IN FOCUS, we dedicate ourselves to selected loans and get to know additional collectors of Max Liebermann. We look into individual family stories and trace the paths of the works to us at Wannsee. Other valuable objects in our collection are the painter’s letters, which reveal new perspectives on his network, life, and work.

We present our most recent loan from December 2024 here in the entrance area: The ink drawing Kaffeegarten in Wildbad (im Schwarzwald) [Coffee Garden in Wildbad (in the Black Forest)] was designed by Max Liebermann when he visited his ailing father there in early summer 1893 and stayed at the Hotel Klumpp in the spa town.

Alte Nationalgalierie

The Alte Nationalgalerie [Old National Gallery] of the State Museums in Berlin has supported our house for many years. Founded in 1861, it was able to build a remarkable collection and make it accessible to the public thanks to the extensive commitment of bourgeois art patrons. In 1929, the then director Ludwig Justi initiated a circle of friends and sponsors that involved significant private collectors.

Since the opening of the Liebermann-Villa as a museum in 2006, the Nationalgalerie has generously provided loans. It owns 22 paintings by Max Liebermann, four of which are central works in our permanent exhibition. These works originally came into the Nationalgalerie’s collection as donations and show how important private engagement is for museums.

Two of the loans have enriched our presentation since 2015: Selbstbildnis im Anzug [Self-Portrait in a Suit] and Landschaft bei Noordwijk [Landscape near Noordwijk]. The self-portrait was at times part of private collections of prominent figures such as Alfred Cassirer and Axel Springer before it was anonymously donated to the Nationalgalerie in 2004. The landscape was already bequeathed directly to the museum by the patron Dr. Eduard Georg Simon in 1906.

Other loans from the Nationalgalerie include Birken am Wannseeufer [Birch Trees on the Wannsee Shore], which entered its collection from the estate of Dr. Kurt Hamann in 1982, and Gartenlokal an der Havel – Nikolskoe [Garden Restaurant on the Havel – Nikolskoe], which was bequeathed to the collection from the legacy of Marianne Neuberg in 1992. Both works have been on permanent loan to the Liebermann-Villa since 2006.

The loan agreements with the Nationalgalerie were initially concluded for six years and have fortunately been extended several times to this day. We are extraordinarily grateful for this ongoing support.

Family History Sultan

Liebermann’s portrait of Adolf Sultan has been on loan at the Liebermann-Villa since 2012 and comes from the possession of the descendants of the depicted. Born as Abraham, Adolf Sultan (1861-1941) ran a liquor factory in Thorn in West Prussia. In the art historian Matthias Eberle’s catalog raisonné, the portrait was still listed in 1996 as a Bildnis eines unbekannten Herrn mit Zigarre [Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman with a Cigar].

The creation of the work is mentioned in Liebermann’s letters, for example, from February 1918: “Dear Sir, […] I will gladly undertake this task [to paint your portrait] as soon as I have time, which will hardly be before March.” Due to illness, the date was further postponed, so he offered a session on 26 March 1918, at 10 a.m., with more sessions following in October. On 27 November 1918, Liebermann thanked for the payment of 12,000 marks and added, “I am extremely pleased to hear that you and your family like the painting.”

At that time, Adolf Sultan lived with his family at Delbrückstraße 6A in a stately villa in Berlin-Grunewald by the Hubertussee. With his wife Ida Rosa Sultan (1872-1958), affectionately known as Coba, and their seven children. The family maintained a rich cultural life and was widely connected in the upper middle class. Besides works by Max Liebermann, they collected paintings by Ludwig von Hofmann, Emil Nolde, and Adolf von Menzel, as well as bronze and stone statues, vases, and valuable collector’s items such as first edition books.

In 1940, the Jewish family was expropriated, and some children fled during the Nazi dictatorship to Switzerland, Japan, Great Britain, and the USA, to New York. Some pieces were restituted after the war, but the art collection in its diversity must be thoroughly researched. Since last year Dr Meike Hoffmann at the Kunsthistorisches Institut der Freien Universität Berlin runs the provenance research project „Verfolgt und beraubt. Die Sultan Familie und ihre NS-Vermögensverluste (SACRe).” This project is a partnership with Barani Shira Guttsman, a Sultan Victorius Guttsmann family representative and descendant. It is financed by a grant from the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, jointly funded by the State Ministry for Culture and the Media, the Länder and the municipal authorities in Germany.

The heir representative is Barani Shira Guttsman (NY, USA), her great-grandmother was Adolf Sultan’s daughter, Klara Paula Guttsmann, geb. Sultan. Mrs Guttmans focus is to create a culture of institutional collaboration, interwoven and encompassing acts of an active remembrance culture, reuniting family connections and facilitating community and healing.

Image Courtesy © Sultan Victorius Guttsmann Family

Family History Frentzel

The Bildnis Dr. Otto Frentzel [Portrait of Dr. Otto Frentzel] came to the Liebermann-Villa on loan in 2012. It originates from the collection of the Familien-Schultz-Frentzel Foundation, based in Kronberg im Taunus. Founded in 2007 by Otto Frentzel’s great-granddaughter Barbara Schultz, the foundation aims to promote 19th-century German painting. The foundation has supported our house in various ways since 2010, for instance, by setting up an interactive media corner on the ground floor, acquiring microphone technology for tours, and covering transport costs. Most recently, they funded our exhibition catalog for the painter Dora Hitz.

The physician and industrialist Otto Frentzel (1864-1954) collected works of the Berlin Secession. His collection included a street scene by Camille Pissarro and Liebermann’s Am Strand von Noordwijk [On the Beach of Noordwijk] from 1908, which was sold after World War II and has been housed at the Von Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal since 1964.

An extensive correspondence between Otto Frentzel and Max Liebermann documents the creation of the portrait, shown here in its original form in the display case. The painter wrote in May 1911: “[…] I hasten to inform you that I will paint you with great pleasure. The timing would also suit me very well, around October […].” After completion, Liebermann advised Frentzel on 23 December 1911, to hang the work so that the light falls from the left. By January 1912, the portrait was paid for with 6,000 marks, and Liebermann invited the Frentzel couple to dinner. Since then, the portrait has remained in the family’s possession. It also hung in the parental home of Barbara Schultz in Kronberg.

Liebermann’s Circle of Acquaintances (Text shown in the display)

Since no estate of Max Liebermann has been preserved and his works are scattered around the world, his correspondence is an important source for art historical research. The Max Liebermann Society owns a number of letters, which were either donated or purchased. A particularly fortunate circumstance brought the donation of the correspondence between Otto Frentzel and Max Liebermann to the Liebermann-Villa in 2006, allowing us to present the completed oil portrait along with the letters today.

Some of Liebermann’s works remained in family ownership for decades, such as the portrait of Antonie Amalia geb. Reichenheim, Liebermann’s cousin. It is said that Antonie née Reichenheim (1850-1916) undertook adventurous journeys with her husband Carl Liebermann (1842-1914) from Norway over Spitzbergen to Sicily and to the Biskra oasis in Algeria. After her death, Liebermann painted the pastel from his memory for her daughter Else, whose heir community donated it to the Liebermann-Villa in 2006.

Other works were purchased on the art market, such as the Porträt von Bülow [Portrait of Bülow], acquired in 2002 at Grisebach. It was likely created in five versions, one of which was shown at Liebermann’s 70th birthday in 1917 at the Royal Academy of Arts and this particular example in Berlin in 1959. In 1915, Karl Wilhelm Paul von Bülow (1846-1921) was promoted to General Field Marshal, but had to take a few months off due to illness and was already retired by 1916. In the portrait from 1916, he wears the blue-gold Order of Merit “Pour le Mérite,” a large order clasp with the Iron Cross II, and the silver “Breast Star of the High Order of the Black Eagle.”

Scheffelt Privatstiftung

Since 2017, three oil paintings, three etchings, and a lithograph have been on permanent loan from the Scheffelt Private Foundation at the Liebermann Villa. The Salzburg-based foundation was established in 2011 by Dr. Magdalena Scheffelt (1921–2015) and her late son Michael. Magda Scheffelt was the longtime chief executive officer of the Economic Association of Industrial Enterprises in Baden. Both mother and son were passionate art collectors. Their collection primarily included paintings and graphics from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as porcelain and furniture from the 18th century. The works that are now housed in the Liebermann Villa were previously on loan at the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg im Breisgau.

The works from the foundation represent Liebermann’s oeuvre with iconic motifs: a Dutch theme with the Shepherdess, Boys Bathing, and Rising Horses, complemented by two summery Wannsee pictures from 1926 – one of the gardener’s house with its blossoms and the cheerful activities at Wannsee on the weekend. When Liebermann could no longer travel abroad due to the outbreak of the First World War, he focused on his immediate surroundings. For the painting of the gardener’s house, Liebermann received the gold medal and a state prize of 1,000 Reichsmarks at the “Deutsche Kunst” [German Art] exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1928, with which he supported two young Düsseldorf artists.

Family History Neithold

Works that have been with us before also find their way back to our museum. Such is the case with the painting Birken im Garten [Birch Trees in the Garden]. The painting from the collection of the Jewish businessman Hermann Hugo Neithold (1862–1939) was exhibited here from 2016 to 2022 and returned to Wannsee in November after two years, after it was offered to us by its new owners.

Hugo Neithold expanded his art collection through purchases made during travels both within Germany and abroad. He began acquiring artworks while living in Wilkau near Zwickau from 1887 to 1915. His earliest acquisitions were made at the David Heinemann Gallery in Munich, which specialized in Munich salon painting of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

After moving with his family to Dresden in 1915, he met the most important gallery owners in the city and continued to build his collection. Initially, he acquired works from the Munich School, which was promoted under King Ludwig I. However, over the years, he expanded his collection to include works from the Munich and Berlin Secession. His collection included numerous landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and genre paintings, over 50 paintings in total, including works by Franz von Defregger, Carl Spitzweg, Wilhelm Trübner, two works by Max Liebermann, and a large-format still life by Lovis Corinth. Additionally, he owned several sculptures, including works by Georg Kolbe. At the end of 1929, Neithold moved with his family to Switzerland to seek treatment for his impaired vision from a renowned Swiss doctor. He later died nearly blind in Zurich. Despite the fact that Neithold and his descendants sold individual works from the collection over time – including a work by Auguste Renoir in the early 1920s for financial reasons – a core part of the collection has been preserved to this day.

Estate of Gretchen Whitman

The two garden paintings have enriched our collection since 2013. They come from the estate of Gretchen Whitman, who lived in London until her death in 2006. Since then, her estate has been managed by a notary who contacted our museum. Gretchen Whitman was married to the banker Gert Whitman. Born Gerd Weissmann, he likely changed his name in the 1930s as part of his emigration to the USA. He was active in the international bond market as early as the 1920s and 1930s. One of the two garden paintings was exhibited at Bruno Cassirer in 1929, but it is not known in which year Whitman acquired it for his collection.

After World War II, Whitman sued for “compensation and restitution” for the injustices suffered under National Socialism. He returned to Germany and became an advisor in Frankfurt to the American politician John Jay McCloy. In the 1960s, he worked as a senior director at the S. G. Warburg & Co. bank and received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1964. He died six years later in Frankfurt am Main.

The London works show how internationally Max Liebermann was collected and continues to be collected to this day. The iconic view of the country house was exhibited in Zurich in 2016 as well as in Darmstadt and Düsseldorf in 2021. The neo-Baroque plastered wooden frame, presumably the original frame, is extremely fragile, which made the transport of the work challenging. To ensure safe transport, a special transport frame had to be made for the crate, in which the work could be suspended.

Fondation Sonia and Edward Kossoy

The Sonia and Edward Kossoy Foundation, Geneva, has been supporting the Liebermann Villa since 2016. The garden pastel was offered as part of a previous special exhibition. Initially, we were able to temporarily import the works from Switzerland for 24 months through customs for temporary use. After the period expired, we had to find a new solution with customs for permanent presentation in Germany.

Sonia (1911–1999) and Edward Kossoy (1913–2012) established the foundation in 1998 with the goal of keeping their extensive art collection united in the future. The Jewish lawyer from Poland and his wife had lost their families in the Holocaust. They met in Israel after the war and settled there.

In the 1950s, the Kossoys began traveling to Germany, and Edward became a pioneer in compensation for Nazi injustices. In addition to the office in Tel Aviv, he opened a delivery office in Munich and later also in other German cities. The family’s move from Israel to Germany was prompted by the agreement between Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israel’s Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett on reparations in 1952. The Kossoy family lived in Munich from 1953 to 1958. Even then, they showed great interest in art and regularly visited exhibitions at the Haus der Kunst there.

After the family’s later move to Geneva in 1958, Edward Kossoy began acquiring art through the art market in the early 1960s. He purchased works from Kunsthaus Lempertz in Germany, as well as from the Koller auction house in Zurich. The Kossoy collection includes works by Max Liebermann, as well as Lesser Ury, Isaac Israels, Karl Hagemeister, and Post-Impressionist positions. Henri Fantin-Latour, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Signac are represented, as well as Maurice de Vlaminck, Max Pechstein, and Ilya Repin. A seascape by Edgar Degas had to be sold in the meantime. Edward Kossoy placed great importance on the provenance of the works. Presumably, the Liebermann work in the accompanying photograph was resold due to unclear provenance.

The Kossoy couple collected only what “they really liked, artworks that they really enjoyed every day” their daughter reports in conversation with us. Karin Ohry, the Kossoys’ daughter, now lives in Israel again and worked at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art for a long time. She is very committed to making her parents’ art collection accessible to the public. Therefore, she is grateful to be able to support the Liebermann Villa long-term with the three works.

Family History Marzynski

In October 2024, the pastel was newly added to the collection and is being presented here for the first time. It was a gift from the artist Liebermann to Siegbert Marzynski (1892–1969). On Liebermann’s birthday in July 1924, the painter thanked Marzynski with kind words: “Many thanks for the wonderful still life that accompanied your congratulations. […] That you also thought of the pastel crayons when you were in Paris is indeed touching. […] Perhaps I will manage a piece of handiwork with the new pastel colors and I will decide it for you […] you must come out and choose something.”

Siegbert Marzynski studied art history with Heinrich Wölfflin in Berlin and later joined his father’s export business. Through his work, he made contacts in France, acquired several works by French artists, and built his own collection.

Max Liebermann painted the entire Marzynski family: parents Heimann (1864–1937) and Minna Marzynski (1865–1937), as well as their son Siegbert, as a young man in 1922. Siegbert and his wife received another gift from Liebermann for their wedding in 1934: a small painted Wannsee Garden.

The Marzynskis fled to the United States in 1941 and were able to take the pastel with them. In America, Marzynski changed his name to Siegbert Hyman Marcy and settled in Beverly Hills. Initially remaining in family possession, the work returned to Germany in 1969 and was offered on the art market. Today, it is a generous loan from a private collection at our museum.

The Liebermann Villa maintains regular contact with descendants from Liebermann’s circle. For example, last year, we were visited by Siegbert Marzynski’s great-niece, who lives in the USA and traveled to Berlin following her family’s footsteps.

Liebermann‘s Pastels (Text shown in the display)

In 1937, the Schocken Verlag, a significant Jewish publishing house that managed to persevere from 1931 to 1939, published 70 letters by Max Liebermann. Among them is the letter to Siegbert Marzynski, in which Liebermann mentions the pastel. The work edited by Franz Landsberger was gifted to us from a private source during the exhibition preparation.

Max Liebermann’s pastels are considered highly sought-after collectibles. The museum owns two landscape pastels by Liebermann: a view into the lakeside garden with hedge gardens and a view of Wannsee with boats, which was donated to us. In rare cases, the Max Liebermann Society, thanks to generous donations, was also able to purchase works, such as the hedge pastel in 2012 through the art trade in Hamburg. The mentioned Wannsee pastel was made available as a loan last year and is still on display in Rome at the Casa di Goethe until February 2025, after which it will return to Berlin.

Liebermann‘s Letters

Since its founding in 1995, the Max Liebermann Society has collected not only artworks but also letters and postcards from Max Liebermann and his circle. These autographs are crucial for a deeper understanding of the artist, his network, and the art world of his time. The goal is to digitize these letter correspondences in the future to make them accessible to a broader audience.

Between 2010 and 2021, the Liebermann Villa had a research project related to the letters of Max Liebermann. All known and preserved letters of the painter were to be recorded and commented on as part of a historically critical complete edition. The project, led by Liebermann researcher Ernst Volker Braun, was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German Research Foundation, DFG] and the Hermann Reemtsma Foundation. The approximately 3,000 transcribed letters were published in nine volumes by the Deutscher Wissenschaftsverlag [German Science Publishing House] between 2011 and 2021.

Building on this, the Max Liebermann Society launched a new third-party funding project in cooperation with the Academy of Arts, Berlin, in 2024. Expertly guided by the Forschungs- und Kompetenzzentrum Digitalisierung Berlin [Research and Competence Center for Digitization Berlin, digiS], the project aimed to digitize 384 letters from the Academy’s archive and make them accessible with transcriptions via the online platform museum-digital.

In this exhibition, we present a selection of letters and postcards from the Max Liebermann Society’s collection. Each letter and postcard is accompanied by a transcript. Can you decipher Liebermann’s handwriting?