A New Understanding of Max Liebermann’s Iconography
By Jake Erlewine
Max Liebermann, Selbstbildnis, 1934. Oil paint on canvas, 921x743mm. Tate collections.
Max Liebermann (1847-1935), when reflecting on living his life as a Jewish artist in the German Empire, often spoke of “waking up from a dream of assimilation.” As Hitler took control of Germany and SS troops marched outside Liebermann’s window through the Brandenburg Gate, the tenuous state of Jewish assimilation into German society was overhauled, and as Gershom Schloem wrote, “the ecstatic illusion of being at home” was eliminated. For Liebermann, the struggle to belong was nothing new. Not only was he Jewish, but Liebermann painted much of his artistic output in foreign styles – namely Realism and Impressionism. Liebermann’s liberal and cosmopolitan worldview in a period defined by fervent German nationalism leads to a sense of dislocation in analyzing his work, as he belonged neither to the academic tradition of Menzel nor to the expressionism of die Brücke. However, it is no coincidence that the transformation of German art’s reputation from provincially isolated to a locus of aesthetic modernism occurred during a time when Liebermann was the international face of German painting. However, the key to understanding the place of Liebermann’s art in German culture is not in its form but through its symbols. Through a symbolic analysis, it is revealed that Liebermann’s perceived thematic indifference was in truth a highly political choice. Nowhere in his oeuvre is this more apparent than in his 1890 painting Woman with Goats (Frau mit Geißen in den Dünen) (fig. 1), where a lonely goatherd traveling across a barren landscape becomes a signifier of the artist’s dislocation in the face of Wilhelmine anti-Semitism and conservatism.
Max Liebermann, Woman with Goats, 1890. Oil on canvas, 127 x 172 cm. Neue Pinakothek, Munich
Woman with Goats represents a transitional work for Liebermann from both an autobiographical and formal perspective. 1889 was a tumultuous year for the artist, with his internationally lauded exhibition in the Paris Exposition Universelle becoming a target of conservative criticism for his perceived impropriety in participating in the centennial of the French Revolution. On top of this, Liebermann was forced to refuse the Legion d’Honneur by the Prussian government, an act of extreme pettiness that crystallized his negative opinion of Wilhelm II. Formally, this terse relationship was reflected in a shift towards a French impressionist manner of painting. Brushstrokes became broader and thicker, and further to this, Liebermann moved towards a brighter color palette anchored by light greens and greys. Symbolically, however, one could argue that the diplomatic incidents of 1889 led directly to the motifs expressed in Woman with Goats. This, however, poses the question: how can a peasant woman and two goats encapsulate the zeitgeist of an urban Germany?
Beginning with a formal treatment of the work, the picture depicts a rural, working-class woman from the rear, herding two goats across a barren landscape of sand dunes. While one goat pulls against the woman’s rope, the other trots beside her in the opposite direction. The flattened perspective of the painting, monumentalizing the figures against the background, can also be understood as symbolic. The woman follows a shepherd’s trail which leads to the vanishing point on the horizon, in the upper-left quadrant of the painting. Having listed the motifs, it is now necessary to analyze them within the context of the larger literary tradition. Considering the opposite movement of the goats along with Liebermann’s position as a prominent Jewish figure in an antisemitic cultural environment, it is unquestionable that this is an allusion to the Book of Leviticus, namely the ritual of the scapegoat. In this scene from the Torah (Lev. 16:12-22), Aaron is asked by Moses to select two goats, one of which is designated as a scapegoat and sent out into the wilderness carrying the sins of the community, and another to be used as a blood sacrifice.
The choice of Liebermann to portray not only the scapegoat but the goat that would be used sacrificially is paramount in discerning the intrinsic meaning of Woman with Goats. This makes the goatherd a figure in limbo: still shepherding the sins of the community along with a blood sacrifice, this triad of figures would not be fully accepted in either the wilderness or among the people. In the 1890s, an era that brought a new German anti-Semitism explicitly based on race, several different ideas on Jewish assimilation were debated by scholars. For one, writers such as Moritz Goldstein called for complete Jewish disengagement from German culture, referring to Liebermann’s modernism as such: “Some may call it German, others Jewish…if they have to acknowledge the achievement, they do so with reservations.” On the other hand, Liebermann himself took an ambivalent stance to assimilation, saying “After all, I am a painter, and a Jew can surely be that too.” Linking this back to Woman with Goats, this is subconsciously reflected in the painting through the depicted figures. The goatherd simultaneously herds two goats moving in opposite directions, and if taken to be symbols for the limbo of Jewish assimilation, it would mirror Liebermann’s opinion that his German and Jewish heritages were separate, but equally valuable, parts of his identity.
The perspective of the work is also significant in this regard, as the figures seem monumental in contrast with the flattened background. Liebermann, as previously mentioned, championed the importance of immediacy and meditation in his art theory. While this in its original context was an attempt by Liebermann to typify Realists and Impressionists, the terms are equally applicable to Jewish sociology. Georg Simmel, for example, believed that the main barrier to Jewish assimilation was the forced participation in “a [social] structure composed of distance and nearness,” caused by the societal phenomenon of Jews “not really being perceived as individuals, but as strangers of a certain type” This issue is even relevant in current scholarship on Liebermann, with some scholars still typifying the art of Liebermann as German or non-German in the context of inclusion in the Prussian pantheon of artists. Within Woman with Goats, the flattened perspective muddles distance and nearness, and through this, symbolizes Simmel’s conception of Jewish assimilation. When taken as a complete iconological program, Woman with Goats becomes a poignant allegory of the struggle to belong as a Jew in the German Empire. The goats, unsure of their own movement in an oppressive landscape, are herded towards an uncertain future destination, not unlike a German-Jewish consciousness that had an unsure response to increasingly frequent racist attacks. These animals attain biblical symbolism from Max Liebermann himself serving as a scapegoat for nationalists because of his liberal ideas on art, culture, and cosmopolitanism.
To conclude, contrary to the formalist perspectives employed by most Liebermann scholars, I argue that iconological discourse – or at the very least a discussion of the symbolic themes in Liebermann’s oeuvre – is necessary to fully comprehend the artist’s works. Liebermann made a career of going against Prussian cultural currents and establishments, which, along with his Jewish identity, serves as ample explanation for the tenuousness of his position in German society. This tension, however, is a testament to his critical status as a beacon of liberalism in the face of the social conservatism of the Second Reich.
Notes:
Deshmukh, Marion F. “Max Liebermann: Observations on the Politics of Painting in Imperial Germany, 1870-1914.” German Studies Review 3, no. 2 (1980)
Frank, Mitchell B. “Max Liebermann: Assimilation and Belonging.” RACAR: Revue d’art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review 45, no. 2 (2020)
Goldstein, Moritz, “Deutsch-jüdischer Parnaß,” Der Kunstwart 25, no. 11 (March, 1912), 238, trans. in Ascheim, Steven. The Yale Companion to Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture, 1096-1996. 299.
Paret, Peter, The Berlin Secession: Modernism and Its Enemies in Imperial Germany (1980)
Paret, Peter. “Triumph and Disaster of Assimilation: The Painter Max Liebermann.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 15, no. 2 (2008): 133.
Schloem, Gershom ,“On Jews and Judaism in Crisis,” in On Jews and Judaism in Crisis :Selected Essays (1976),