Edwin Mackinnon Liebert

Edwin Mackinnon Liebert

Edwin Charles Mackinnon Liebert (born March 13, 1858 in Manchester ; † September 5, 1908 in Plévenon ) was a British-German painter who lived and worked in Paris ( Montmartre ) and Düsseldorf (artists' association " Malkasten "), but above all in Brittany has left its mark.

life and work

Liebert was the second of six children of German-born cloth merchant Siegfried Adolph Liebert from Manchester and his Cologne- born wife Caroline, née. Büschler. The nickname "Mackinnon" indicates the close business and private ties between the family and the major British shipping company Sir William Mackinnon. After the early death of the father (1868), the mother returned to Germany with the children and acquired the Villa Vinea Domini in Bonn on the Rhine . Edwin spent a large part of his youth in Bonn and attended the Royal Prussian Gymnasium here for a few years (now the Beethoven Gymnasium).

From 1878 to 1881 he studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Aachen and from 1884 attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich for at least two years (at the same time as Max Slevogt ). In 1889 he went to Paris, where he took lessons from Fernand Cormon . Various well-known painters had studied with Cormon, who had a private studio on Montmartre, at that time. B. Toulouse-Lautrec . Through Cormon's mediation, Liebert was able to exhibit two pictures at the coveted "Salon de Paris" in 1891 and 1896.

In Paris he made contact with a group of American artists with whom he took part in the First International Art Exhibition in Berlin in 1891. His pictures received an "Honorable Mention" and were praised in the press. Since then Liebert has been referred to as an American in various encyclopedias (e.g. Bötticher, Thieme / Becker, Bénézit) and was considered a painter of genre pictures and still lifes.

In 1896 Liebert moved from Paris to Düsseldorf. He joined the artists' association "Malkasten" and established himself as a "painter". In the following years he took part in various international exhibitions, e.g. B. 1899 in the Walker Gallery in Liverpool , 1904 in Düsseldorf, 1906 in Elberfeld.

At the same time he went on longer trips, which he a. a. led to Brittany. In 1901 he bought a small fisherman's house in the coastal town of Pléhérel in the "Pays de Fréhel". In 1902 he began to realize his lifelong dream in the neighboring municipality of Plévenon: the construction of a villa designed according to his own plans with a view of the sea, which he moved into in 1905. With the move into the "Château de Tertres", a phase of great artistic productivity began for Liebert. His pictures from this period show that he developed thematically and stylistically and took up the suggestions of French painting. In addition, he was involved in handicrafts and technical projects.

Edwin Mackinnon Liebert died unexpectedly on September 5, 1908 of complications from peritonitis. On his deathbed he ordered a large donation to the poor in the community of Plévenon and expressed his wish to be buried in Bonn. His family and the "Malkasten" published obituaries. On September 10, 1908, he was buried in Bonn- Poppelsdorf . His two houses and their inventory were sold by his heirs in 1911 and 1913.

aftermath

The painter Edwin Mackinnon Liebert is only known to a small circle of lovers today. His pictures are largely lost and can only be traced as entries in exhibition catalogs. The few pictures, objects and other evidence that still exist are in private hands in Brittany.

In the population of the "Pays de Fréhel", however, a vivid memory of this strange artist has been preserved for over a century and has contributed to the creation of rich legends. Was he a British or German spy? In 2004, a small Franco-German circle of friends was formed in Brittany with the aim of investigating Liebert's life and work more closely and making them known. The first results were presented to the public in 2008 on the occasion of the artist's 150th birthday and 100th anniversary of death.

Literature and Sources

• Liebert, Edwin Mackinnon . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 23 : Leitenstorfer – Mander . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1929, p. 201 .
• Jean-Yves Chatellier, Hans-Wolf Rissom: Edwin Mackinnon Liébert, Concitoyen de Pléhérel et de Plévenon à la fin du 19ème et au début du 20ème siècle, L'Histoire énigmatique d'une vie d'artiste peintre (1858–1908). Le Barachois, Fréhel / Bretagne 2008, ISBN 978-2-9532327-0-7 .
• Hans-Wolf and Wiebke Rissom: Edwin Mackinnon Liebert (1858–1908), An artist's life between Bonn and Brittany. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter. Volume 59, Bonn 2009, pp. 217-235.

Web links

Commons : Edwin Mackinnon Liébert  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• 00040 Mackinnon Liebert Edwin. In: Matriculation Book 1884–1920. of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich