Cobbler’s Workshop

In Dongen in the summer of 1881, Liebermann painted his Cobbler’s Workshop, completing it in two weeks. He had already seen the work shop and had decided to paint it a year before. During the winter he had made an oil study, followed by studies of models . Now he returned well prepared, with a suitable wood panel, to revive his first, fresh impressions. In 1882 he sent the painting to the Paris Exhibition. There it was bought by the singer and collector Jean-Baptiste Faure, from whom it was later acquired by the National galerie. Faure was an early promoter of French Impressionism. While Liebermann was not typical of the artists in his collection, the presence of this painting shows that, in this image of work drenched in light, Faure, the connoisseur, recognized Liebermann’s incipient move towards the principles of Impressionism. There are no echoes here of the some what oppressive half-light of Women Plucking Geese. Light pours in through the window and visibly flows round figures and objects alike.