Max Liebermann (1847 Berlin - 1935 ibid.) Sewing girls in Huyzen One of Liebermann's early main themes in the 1880s until around 1890 was people going about their everyday activities. During his regular painting sojourns in the Netherlands, which lasted several weeks, he also focused intensively on observing rural labour and production processes, which fascinated him, as in his famous "Lawn Bleaching". Some studies of "Seamstresses" were already created in Brabant at the beginning of the 1880s, in Amsterdam orphanages and convents, and to the south-east of these in Huyzen near Laren. The present study shows four young women sitting in a row next to each other, quietly and seriously absorbed in their sewing and embroidery work, to whom Liebermann lends dignity and respect with his depiction of their "menial labour". It presumably marks the beginning of a smaller series of works depicting seamstresses from Huyzen, which were not translated into larger compositions. Liebermann has executed the motif with a virtuoso, rapid, broad brushstroke and a soft, pastose application of colour, deliberately leaving part of the painting ground untouched. This "non finito" corresponds with the immediate, impressionistic capture of the fleeting moment and impression. Oil/cardboard, mounted on old canvas. L. u. sign. and dat. (18)90. 46.7 cm x 61 cm. Frame. Wvz.: Eberle 1889/7. Additional literature: Erich Hancke: "Max Liebermann. Sein Leben und seine Werke", Berlin 1914, p. 534 o. no. (1889 no. 7 "Nähende Mädchen - Huyzen"); "Die Auktion der Sammlung Guttmann", in: Der Cicerone, vol. IX, no. 9/10, May 1917, p. 217 f; Erich Hancke: "Max Liebermann. Sein Leben und Werk", Berlin 1923, p. 248 ff.; "Neue Berliner Illustrierte", July 1947 (3rd issue), p. 12 with illus.; Katrin Boskamp, "Studien zum Frühwerk von Max Liebermann mit einem Verzeichnis der Gemälde und Ölstudien von 1866-1889", Hildesheim/Zurich/New York 1994, cat. no. E 84. E 84. Exhibitions: Berlin 1917, Cassirer-Helbing auction, "Moderne Gemälde - Die Sammlung Albrecht Guttmann und Nachlass eines Berliner Sammlers", 18.5.1917, no. 50 with illus.; Berlin 1947 (Hauptamt für Kunst), memorial exhibition "Max Liebermann - Zum 100. Geburtstag", cat. No. 18; Berlin 1957 (Bezirksamt Reinickendorf), "Alt-Berliner Maler aus Privatbesitz", p. 18; Berlin 1959 (Rathaus Reinickendorf/Rathaus Tempelhof), "Max Liebermann. Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints", Cat. No. 15 with colour illustrations ("Holländische Näherinnen"); Berlin 1965, "Berlin und seine Maler von J.G. Rosenberg bis Max Liebermann. Paintings and watercolours from private collections in Berlin", cat. No. 37 ("Holländische Näherinnen"), p. 21 with colour illus. Provenance: City Councillor Max Cassirer, Berlin (1914); Cassirer-Helbing, Berlin (1917); Dr Viktor Korell, Berlin. South German private collection. Oil on cardboard, laid down on canvas. Signed and dated (18)90. Mentioned in the catalogue raisonné by Eberle under no. 1889/7.