Max Liebermann

Carl Duisberg

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Max Liebermann, 1847–1935
Carl Duisberg (1909)
Oil on canvas
110 x 90 cm

Bayer’s first managing director Dr. Carl Duisberg sat for many portraits. Two portraits of him by Max Liebermann exist, one as a private citizen with a rose in his lapel and the other in his role as managing director.

Liebermann is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern German art and one of the leading exponents of German Impressionism. In the 1880s he changed from a naturalist to an impressionist style. Liebermann was a co-founder, and for many years president, of the Berlin Secession. He was held in extremely high esteem as an artist until Hitler seized power. The National Socialists banned his work, vilified him on account of his Jewish origins, and isolated him socially. Liebermann died in 1934 after a serious illness.

In addition to Liebermann, Leo Samberger, Fritz Rhein, Oskar Hagemann, Johannes Marx, Fritz Erler and Arthur Fischer all painted oil portraits of Carl Duisberg. Fritz Reusing drew Duisberg in charcoal and the medallist Arnold Hartig produced portraits in bronze. There are also busts of Duisberg by Adolf von Hildebrand, Hugo Lederer and Fritz Klimsch.

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