Potato Harvest

This early masterpiece by Liebermann is part of his pre-Impressionist phase. After completing training in Weimar, he lived from 1873-8 in Paris, where he was influenced by the Barbizon School and in particular by Jean François Millet (1814-1875) when it came to portraying the rural working population. Using earthy tones and a light brush, Liebermann recorded the potato harvesters bent low over the wide field. Although he prepared it carefully, with several individual studies and a compositional drawing, he revised the final work repeatedly and initially did not exhibit it. When he relocated from Munich to Berlin in 1884, he gifted "Potato Harvest" to his painter friend Johannes Sperl. Presumably it would have been difficult for Liebermann to find a buyer as his realistic depiction of the effort of harvesting presented against the backdrop of realistic countryside did not at first meet with much love in Germany. (Nicole Roth)