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This picture shows the following artwork: Max Liebermann. ”Kopie der Bohémienne von Frans Hals” (Copy of the Bohémienne by Frans Hals). 1873/74.

The painting is free of restiution claims and will be offered with the explicit consent of the heirs of Martha Liebermann.

Exhibition

Schöpferische Kopien. Mannheim, Kunsthalle, 1931, cat. no. 65 / Max Liebermann. Der Realist und die Phantasie. Hamburg, Kunsthalle; Frankfurt a.M., Städelsches Kunstinstitut, and Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, 1997/98, p. 94, colour ill. p. 97, p. 238 and p. 262, cat. no. 8 / Max Liebermann und die Holländer. Hanover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, and Drents, Museum Assen, 2006/07, colour ill. p. 9 / Künstlerfürsten: Liebermann. Lenbach. Stuck. Berlin, Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, in the Max Liebermann House, 2009, p. 69, colour ill. p. 104 / Max Liebermann. Wegbereiter der Moderne. Bonn, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, and Hamburg, Hamburg Kunsthalle, 2011/12, cat. no. 9, colour ill. p. 126

Literature and illustration

Erich Hancke: Max Liebermann. Sein Leben und seine Werke. Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1914, p. 78 and Werkkatalog p. 528 / Erich Hancke: Liebermanns Kopien nach Franz Hals. In: Kunst und Künstler, vol. 16, H. 11, July 1916, p. 525-534, here p. 526, ill. p. 529 / Erich Hancke: Max Liebermann. Sein Leben und seine Werke. Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 2nd edition 1923, p. 78 / Carl Georg Heise: (Katalog der Sammlung Walter Bauer, Fulda). Berlin o. J. (1941), unpag., ill. / Auction 231: Moderne Kunst. Hamburg, Hauswedell & Nolte, 8./9.6.1979, cat. no. 792, ill. p. 263 / Studio-Ausstellung 9: Max Liebermann. „Münchner Biergarten“. Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek, 1986, p. 52 and ill. 33, p. 51 (not exhibited) / Auction Catalogue: Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. London, Christie's, 21.2.1989, cat. no. 117, w. colour ill. / Katrin Boskamp: Studien zum Frühwerk von Max Liebermann mit einem Verzeichnis der Gemälde und Ölstudien von 1866–1889. Hildesheim–Zürich–New York, Georg Olms Verlag, 1994 (= Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, vol. 88), cat. no. 40, ill. 63 / Exh. Cat.: „Nichts trügt weniger als der Schein“. Max Liebermann, der deutsche Impressionist. Bremen, Kunsthalle, 1995/96, p. 86 (Brief des Künstlers an Gustav Pauli vom 25.6.1911) and p. 240 (not exhibited) / Barbara Gaehtgens: Holland als Vorbild. In: exh. cat.: Max Liebermann, Jahrhundertwende. Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1997, p. 83-92, here p. 86 and colour ill. p. 87 (not exhibited) / Martin Faass (ed.): Verlorene Schätze. Die Kunstsammlung von Max Liebermann. ed. by Monika Tatzkow. Berlin, Nicolai, 2013, p. 75 / Marion F. Deshmukh: Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany. Farnham/Survey, and Burlington/VT, Ashgate, 2015, p. 13, ill., and p. 50 / Wim Vroom, Marrigje Rikken: Liebermann. Hals's greatest admirer. In: Frans Hals and the Moderns (Magazine for the exhibition of the same name), Frans Hals Museum, 2018/19, p. 16–19, ill. p. 16

Max Liebermann died in Berlin on 8 February 1935. After his death, his widow, Martha Liebermann (1857-1943), née Marckwald, inherited his entire art collection. This included not only a large number of works by his own hand, but also a collection of numerous artworks by other artists. After her husband's death, Martha organised his artistic estate together with the art historian Erich Hancke, the painter's biographer. All of Liebermann's works that were not signed were given an estate stamp showing a facsimile of Liebermann's signature. This stamp makes it possible today to identify the works that remained unsigned at Liebermann's death and to trace which parts of the collection were in the possession of Max Liebermann's widow in 1935. The Bohémienne bears the estate stamp and it is often unclear what happened to the works belonging to the estate after the estate stamp was affixed in the summer of 1935. In the case of the present work, for example, we do not know exactly until when it was in Martha Liebermann's possession. By 1941 at the latest, the ‘Copy of Frans Hals’ Bohémienne’ was part of the collection of the entrepreneur and art collector Walter Bauer. We know this because a catalogue of the works in his collection was published that year. Dr. Walter Albert Bauer (1901-1968) was involved in the resistance against Hitler during the Nazi era, including as a member of the opposition ‘Confessing Church’ in Berlin. As far as is known, he also supported the – ultimately unsuccessful – efforts to help Martha Liebermann escape to Switzerland. Walter Bauer died in Fulda in 1968. The painting from his estate was auctioned off at Hauswedell & Nolte in 1979. After a number of subsequent sales, it came into the possession of the family of the current consignor in 1989. Martha Liebermann was subjected to increasing violence and repression by the Nazi state in the last years of her life. She was repeatedly forced to sell works of art in order to secure her livelihood, including this painting. Shortly before her announced deportation, Martha Liebermann committed suicide on 10 March 1943.

Subject to change - Please refer to our conditions of sale.

206 Max Liebermann

1847 – Berlin – 1935

”Kopie der Bohémienne von Frans Hals” (Copy of the Bohémienne by Frans Hals). 1873/74

Oil on panel. 58 × 51,7 cm (22 ⅞ × 20 ⅜ in.). Lower right with the estate stamp: MLiebermann. Catalogue raisonné: Eberle 1873/16. [3171] Framed

Provenance

Max Liebermann, Berlin (1873/74 until 1935) / Martha Liebermann, Berlin (1935 until at the latest 1941) / Walter Bauer, Fulda (at the latest 1941 until 1968) / Walter Bauer heirs (1968 until 1979; 1969 loan to the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe) / Galerie Norbert Blaeser, Düsseldorf (1979 until 1999) / Private Collection, Bavaria (acquired 1999)

EUR 60,000

- 80,000

USD 67,400

- 89,900

Auction 366

Thursday, June 5th 2025, 2:00 PM

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