Max Liebermann
Georg KOLBE
(German, 1877-1947)
Max Liebermann
Date1929
Mediumbronze
Dimensionsobject: 12 x 7 x 8 in. (30.5 x 17.8 x 20.3 cm)
base: 2 3/8 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (6 x 14 x 14 cm)
ClassificationSCULPTURE
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of B. Gerald Cantor Art Foundation
Object number1985.28
Subject(s)
- portraits
- men
Collection
- 20th century European
On View
On viewCollections
Label TextThis portrait of the painter, collector, and president of the Prussian Academy of Arts was done two years after a triumphant exhibition of his art was held in Berlin and four years before Liebermann’s art would be banned from Germany because of his Jewish ancestry. Kolbe was commissioned by Liebermann for this bust portrait, in exchange for which Liebermann traded him two works of his own. Like the older French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, whose studio he visited briefly in 1909, Kolbe retains the passage of his grasping fingers. The roughly finished surface communicates a sense of intimacy between sitter and sculptor, who sensitively recorded the life experience etched on his sitter’s aging features.
