Max Liebermann Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

This vibrant garden scene achieved Liebermann's current auction record when it sold at Sotheby's London in February 2006, more than doubling its high estimate of £900,000. The painting (as the translated title suggests, “Flowering perennials in front of the gardener's house to the north”) depicts lush flower beds in front of the gardener's house at Liebermann's beloved Wannsee Villa, which he had purchased in 1909. The property represented a significant milestone in Liebermann's personal and artistic development, providing him with a sanctuary that would become his primary subject matter. Created during a period when he was already an established artist and president of the Berlin Secession, this work exemplifies his mature Impressionist style with its vibrant colours and confident brushwork. The painting demonstrates Liebermann's sophisticated understanding of light and colour, skills he had developed through decades of artistic evolution from his earlier, darker realist works.

Selling at Galerie Kornfeld Auktionen AG in June 2022 for four times its estimate, this exceptional example of Liebermann's garden paintings showcases one of his most cherished motifs - the flower terrace that linked his villa with the lawn stretching toward Lake Wannsee, which became a central subject in his later works. Each spring, Liebermann had these beds planted with yellow and blue pansies in geometric arrangements, creating striking colour compositions that perfectly suited his Impressionist approach. The flower terrace paintings hold particular significance as they often include the Otter Fountain by sculptor August Gaul, which Liebermann had given to his wife Martha as a Christmas present in 1909. This personal element transforms these works into intimate family documents as well as artistic achievements. Between 1910 and 1935, Liebermann created over 200 paintings capturing different aspects of the garden from varying perspectives and in different seasons.

This striking coastal scene, symbolising Liebermann’s profound connection to the Netherlands, sold at Sotheby's London in June 2015. It was created during his stay in Scheveningen and features two horseback riders conversing along the shoreline, embodying his fascination with Dutch coastal life and representing his earlier, more faithfully realistic style. Liebermann did, however, paint two nearly identical versions of this scene, the other using a style reminiscent of Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet, fellow artists he greatly admired. The painting exemplifies German Impressionism at its finest, showcasing Liebermann's ability to capture fleeting moments of leisure with loose, vibrant brushwork. This work is particularly significant because it represents Liebermann's mature style after his evolution from his earlier, darker realist works like Women Plucking Geese (1872), which had earned him the unflattering title "apostle of the ugly" from critics who rejected his unidealised portrayal of working women.

Achieving this impressive result at Sotheby's London in June 2013, a sharp increase in value since its 2003 sale for £871,500, this painting captures Liebermann's villa and garden in its full glory. The Wannsee residence gained even greater significance during World War I when his annual study trips to Holland became impossible. The villa became his permanent summer home and main artistic subject. In 1909, Liebermann had fulfilled a dream he had expressed years earlier, when visiting a farmer’s garden outside Hamburg in the 1890s: "When I have a villa built for myself at home, I am going to put in a garden like this one. One could paint hundreds of pictures here, one more beautiful than the other." This painting demonstrates Liebermann's sophisticated handling of light and colour, skills developed through decades of artistic evolution. His garden scenes represent his most fully realised Impressionist style, with dynamic brushwork and a focus on how light interacts with the branches and leaves of trees and the petals of colourful flowerbeds.

Selling at Grisebach, Berlin, in December 2006, this painting depicts another distinctive area of Liebermann's garden - the "Hedge Garden" or "Hecken Garten." This section was specifically designed with Alfred Lichtwark, director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle and a close friend of Liebermann. Their collaborative design embodied the principles of the German garden reform movement, which emphasised rational, healthy design over ornate Victorian styles. The "green rooms" formed by hornbeams were intended to awaken curiosity about what lay hidden behind the hedges. The painting's strong performance at auction demonstrates the market's appreciation for works from Liebermann's later period, when he focused almost exclusively on his Wannsee garden. These seemingly idyllic garden scenes take on deeper meaning when considered against the backdrop of increasing anti-Semitism in Germany. As a prominent Jewish artist, Liebermann experienced both acceptance and exclusion throughout his career, with the garden providing not only artistic inspiration but also refuge from growing social and political tensions.

This landscape oil painting, depicting a tree-lined path with dappled sunlight, sold at Ketterer Kunst GmbH, Munich, in June 2023. The avenue of birch trees running down to Lake Wannsee was a particularly meaningful element in his garden design. When developing the property, Liebermann deliberately preserved existing birch trees, integrating them into his garden plan rather than removing them, in a bid to remain sensitive to the natural landscape that pre-existed him. The recentness of this sale and the strong price, more than doubling its high estimate, demonstrate the continuing market appreciation for Liebermann's Wannsee paintings. Liebermann's Wannsee villa was restored and opened as a museum in 2006, displaying a collection of his garden paintings to the public - a fact that has positively impacted Liebermann’s work’s value ever since. The piece has been a part of many private collections, including the Berti Guggenheim-Wyler Collection in Zurich.

Selling at Grisebach, Berlin, in June 2021, this painting combines Liebermann's recurring interest in both equestrian subjects and tree-lined paths. Throughout his career, Liebermann maintained a fascination with depicting people engaged in leisure activities, from tennis players to horseback riders. Here, these subjects are depicted in Liebermann’s fully realised Impressionist style with loose, confident brushwork and atmospheric lighting. Liebermann maintained a stronger sense of structure and composition than his French Impressionist contemporaries. His technique evolved to capture immediate impressions with energetic brushstrokes while preserving the underlying architectural elements of his subjects. The painting has a rich exhibition history, from the Twenty-Fourth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings in Pittsburgh in 1925 through to the 2016 exhibition at the Villa Am Wannsee itself.

This garden scene realised its strong price at Sotheby's London in February 2007. Like many of his Wannsee paintings, this work demonstrates Liebermann's sophisticated understanding of light and composition. These paintings span a crucial period in both Liebermann's life and German history, and are now considered the most iconic works of his career as a whole. Many were created during his presidency of the Berlin Secession (1899-1911) and his later presidency of the Prussian Academy of Arts (1920-32). The Wannsee garden paintings, in particular, represent a significant shift in his personal and artistic focus - from public to private subject matter, a transition made more poignant by the increasing political tensions in Germany during this period.

Created in 1911 and sold at Grisebach, Berlin, in May 2000, this painting is another example of Liebermann's interest in depicting the leisure activities of modern society. As the earliest sale on this list, it held the artist’s auction record for three years, before the 2003 sale of Mein Haus In Wannsee, Mit Garten (c.1926). This work also coincided with a pivotal time in his career when he was leading German artistic innovation against conservative academic traditions. Painted during Liebermann’s extended summers in the Dutch coastal town of Noordwijk, this work captures both the rise of modern sport among the Wilhelminian upper classes and Liebermann’s fascination with the fleeting effects of light and movement. His tennis court scenes from this period are considered unique in both French and German art, standing out for their lively depiction of contemporary leisure and their role as direct forerunners to his celebrated late garden paintings at Wannsee.

Achieving this result at Sotheby's London in February 2014, this vibrant scene depicts a busy summer evening at Hamburg's Alster Lake, with numerous boats and figures. This animated social scene demonstrates Liebermann's skill at capturing the atmosphere of crowded public spaces - a stark contrast to the intimate privacy of his garden paintings. It was painted during a family holiday and features boaters flying the black, red, and white flag of pre-war Germany, with Hamburg's spires in the distance. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Liebermann resigned from the Prussian Academy when it decided to no longer exhibit works by Jewish artists. He reportedly stated, "I could not possibly eat as much as I would like to vomit," reflecting his dismay at Germany's political direction. He withdrew from public life, dying in isolation at his Berlin home in 1935, but his artistic legacy has endured despite Nazi attempts to erase his contributions.