The current one-room exhibition focuses on Martha Liebermann, whose 80th anniversary is in 2023. The exhibition presents two portraits of the Liebermann couple, painted by the Swede Anders Zorn in the 1890s. The portrait was commissioned by Max Liebermann, who felt unable to paint his wife justice.
Image gallery
Anders Zorn, Martha Liebermann, 1896
Max Liebermann Haus am Brandenburger Tor
One-room exhibition: Martha Liebermann. fate of an artist's wife
Martha Liebermann can be seen in the picture as an elegant, self-confident lady of the house. Max Liebermann is shown as a private citizen in bourgeois formal dress and not as a painter.
Martha Liebermann was considered to be reserved in public and alert in private, where she was also a critic of her husband's art. She was a good hostess, involved in the Jewish community and in charitable causes. She accompanied her husband through the difficult early phase of his career, through his success as President of the Secession and Academy, through to the tough years of the Nazi dictatorship.
Max Liebermann died in 1935, and Martha felt all the reprisals to which Jewish citizens were subjected. She lost her social position, all her belongings were gradually confiscated and finally her life was threatened. Despite support from Sweden and Switzerland, she was not given an exit permit and avoided deportation on March 10, 1943 by committing suicide.
The one-room exhibitions supplement the permanent presentation of Liebermann's World, which is dedicated to Max Liebermann's life, work and his house on Pariser Platz. Personal and private networks and their artistic resonance are illuminated in a condensed form using a few works by Liebermann.
