In the Kitchen
Max Liebermann (1847-1935), In the Kitchen (In Der Kuche), soft ground etching and drypoint, 1890, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Schiefler 6, second state (of 2). In very good condition, printed on a cream laid paper with full margins, 4 3/8 x 3 1/8, the sheet 11 7/8 x 9 3/8 inches.
A fine impression of this rather rare and early etching, printed in a black/brownish ink.
This small composition is reminiscent of both Millet and Liebermann’s Impressionist contemporary Pissarro; of course Liebermann was known at the time as a German “impressionist.” In the print a farm woman works on some laundry as a child in a rather elaborate wheeled high chair sits across from her.
Liebermann made his earliest etching in 1876, and had some lessons in printmaking after that, but it was not until 1890, under the tutelage of Dutch etcher Jan Veth, that his interest in printmaking truly developed, as he learned the technique of soft-ground etching. In the Kitchen is one of these early ventures. In the period from 1890-1892 he made 21 soft ground etchings, 18 of which were published by the Berlin Photographische Gesellschaft; In the Kitchen was included in this portfolio. Carey and Griffith (The Print in Germany: 1880-1933) note that this portfolio was not a commercial success, but, although Liebermann was to continue printmaking over the course of his career, this early portfolio “contains almost all his best prints.”