Max Liebermann Lot n° 706

Max Liebermann - Concert at the Opera. Oil on cardboard. (1924). Approx. 67 x 48,5 cm. Signed lower left. - Large-format painting from the work group of concert pictures, which documents Liebermann's regular visits to the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden - Characteristic, impressionistic painting style, which masterfully captures the fleeting concert situation - Atmospherically dense image composition, which Liebermann revisited in 1926 as a lithograph Max Liebermann is a regular guest at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, which was located very close to his Berlin home on Pariser Platz next to the Brandenburg Gate. Here he attended the purely symphonic concerts of the orchestra of the State Opera, which took place once a month and which he liked very much - quite in contrast to the opera performances, as he once stated in 1925 in his brash Berlin manner: "I am simply a completely unromantic person. I hate all operas. It's not art at all, such an in-between thing, with bim and bum. I only listen to music in the concert hall." In the late 1910s and early 1920s, Liebermann produced an exquisite group of mostly small-format works that he painted while still giving concerts in the hall. As so often in his extensive œuvre, he focuses on a recurring theme that he spontaneously varies in the individual works. For the painting offered here, "Concert at the Opera" from 1924, Liebermann chooses the view from the stalls to the boxes of the left tier and the left half of the stage, where a part of the orchestra and far right the conductor can be seen. Due to the chosen vertical format, the entire stage is not shown. Liebermann suggests to the viewer the impression of almost sitting in the concert hall himself, so close do the spectators at the lower edge of the picture appear - especially the cropped back figure of the lady with the off-the-shoulder dress. The large, almost abstract chandeliers float like airy clouds above the orchestra, spreading a radiant, festive light. The festive mood is further enhanced by a few yellow and white light reflections, especially on the faces and clothing of the musicians. Warm red accents are set by the curtains and velvety upholstery on the balustrades of the boxes. All in all, in this small group of concert pictures Liebermann devotes less attention to the events on stage or the reactions of the visitors; his aim is much more to capture the festive mood of the audience and the concentrated, tense atmosphere of the musicians. This may also explain the unusual cropping of this portrait-format work, which shows only half of the stage. The viewer's gaze seems to be caught in the stage space above the orchestra, in the shimmering bright light of the chandeliers. Neither the orchestra on stage nor the listeners in the box or the audience in the stalls are explicitly brought into focus by Liebermann; all this remains rather at the edge of the picture. Rather, the fleeting, invisible - and not pictorially representable - spirit of pure music is the focus of the painter. That Liebermann is convinced of the quite unusual appearing picture section, shows the fact that he takes up exactly this motif again for a lithograph in 1926. Inscribed "Schaeffer" in chalk on the verso. Eberle 1924/1. Literature: Kunst für Alle, 39th Jg., Vol. 49, August 1924, with col. Fig. before p. 321 ("Concert in the Opera House"). Exhibition: Spring Exhibition, Academy of Arts, Berlin May/June 1924, cat. no. 128, no ill. ("Symphony Concert"). Provenance: Dr. Leyendecker, Wiesbaden, 1954 (probably Galerie Sammlung Dr. Herbert Leyendecker (1885-1958), Berlin/Wiesbaden; Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, 24-26.11.1954, lot 1605 ("Concert Hall", o. fig, according to result list not sold); Dr. Schaeffer, New York, 1955 (probably Dr. Hanns Schaeffer (1886-1967), Berlin/New York, Schaeffer Galleries, New York); private collection, Baden-Württemberg, family owned for over 50 years, by succession to the present owner. Taxation: differential taxed VAT: Margin Scheme