Portrait of Theodor Fontane

Having in 1896 published an essay on the work of Edgar Degas in Pan magazine, Max Liebermann went on later that year to create a portrait for the same publication, depicting the poet and author Theodor Fontane. Fontane’s poems were also featured in Pan, which was produced by his son’s publishing company in Berlin. Liebermann was nearly 50 when he created the portrait, his subject some 25 years his senior. This bust portrait gives a frontal view of Fontane, who maintains a very upright posture and a rather severe, official pose – doubtless felt by the artist to be most appropriate for the purposes of the portrait.