Max Liebermann (1847-1935)

Bruno Cassirer and his cousin Paul Cassirer had founded their influential Kunst- und Verlagsanstalt in Berlin in 1898, just a few months after the Berliner Secession was founded. With Max Liebermann as its president and both Cassirer cousins as secretaries, the secession was introducing Impressionism to the public and it became the nucleus of Berlin’s burgeoning Avantgarde scene. This in turn helped the Cassirers increase the profile of their art trade and publishing business.

By 1921, the year Liebermann painted this portrait of his close friend and ally, Bruno and Paul had split their business. Bruno, who continued the publishing house under his name, was most known for the Kunst und Künstler, the most important art magazine of the time which recorded and influenced the German speaking art world for thirty years. In this rare portrait of the publisher, painted during his successful years in 1920s Berlin, Liebermann depicts his friend in vibrant brushstrokes and wonderful hues of colour, giving an idea of the animated situation of the sitting.

In 1938 Bruno Cassirer fled with his family to England, leaving much of his art collection behind.