Max Liebermann, the son of a wealthy Berlin Jewish family, was a dominant figure in the German art world in the late-Imperial- and Weimar periods. He initially painted Dutch peasants in a realist style, then led the antiestablishment naturalist movement in the 1880s and 1890s, and, after 1895, worked for many years in an impressionist style. He was famous for his portraits and his scenes of bourgeois life. Liebermann helped found and served as the president of the progressive Berlin Secession from 1898 to 1910 and was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts from 1920 until Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, when Liebermann was forced to resign his position.
When Max Liebermann first exhibited this painting, it caused not only a sensation but a scandal. Some critics objected to a Jew daring to depict Jesus, and they were offended by Liebermann’s realistic…
This wedding riddle from Italy is written in Hebrew and Judeo-Italian. Wedding songs, sometimes performed by professional jesters, were traditional at Jewish weddings. Some had lyrics in the form of…
Al Hirschfeld was most famous for his caricatures of actors, musicians, and other figures from the arts and public life. He himself preferred to be known as a “characterist.” After the birth of his…