◧ Artist: Max Liebermann (1847 - 1935)
◧ Country: Germany
◧ Title: [The Bleaching Ground]
◧ Medium: Oil painting on canvas
◧ Painting Size: Height: 109 x 173 cm (42.9" x 68.1")
◧ Country: Germany
◧ Title: [The Bleaching Ground]
◧ Medium: Oil painting on canvas
◧ Painting Size: Height: 109 x 173 cm (42.9" x 68.1")
◧ Museum: Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany
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◧ Country of Stamp Issue: Germany◧ Date of Issue: January 2, 2013◧ Face Value: 240 Euro Cents◧ Issued as a part of German Painters series
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In a cottage garden with old trees, two maids are busy spreading laundry on the meadow to be bleached. The spacious lawn is already covered with several items of laundry. The laundresses are not alone: in the background on the left a girl is sitting in the grass, two peasant women are talking over the fence. In front of the farm on the right, a flock of chickens is busy looking for food. The light evenly penetrates the dense canopy of the fruit trees. In addition, the harmonious effect of the different shades of green underlines the peaceful mood of the picture.
In its present form, the composition looks more like a landscape. The element of work, which was an important topic in Liebermann's work at the turn of the century, recedes here.
The original idea for the picture, however, was designed differently. A replica of the first state is known from the 1883 catalog of the Paris “Salon”, where the picture was first exhibited. In the earlier version, a laundress of almost monumental size was kneeling in the foreground in front of the washtub and spreading out an item of laundry like the other two maids, while a laundress with a heavy wooden bucket could be seen behind the right fruit tree. Both figures were later painted over by Liebermann. He also shortened the picture at the lower edge of the picture by about 20 centimeters, which gave it a stretched format. This benefited the new character of a landscape picture with peasant maids now almost like staffage figures. The washtub, which now dominates the foreground after being painted over, looks like a still life and blends in harmoniously with the changed mood of the picture.
The picture was painted in Zweeloo. Liebermann had already stayed in Holland for a few days in 1871 and extended his stay to several weeks in 1872. He returned there regularly for study purposes until the First World War.(painting description fromWallraf-Richartz Museum)
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