Recreation Time in the Amsterdam Orphanage
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| Recreation Time in the Amsterdam Orphanage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Max Liebermann |
| Year | 1881-1882 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Movement | Realism |
| Dimensions | 78.5 cm × 107.5 cm (30.9 in × 42.3 in) |
| Location | Städel, Frankfurt am Main |
Recreation Time in the Amsterdam Orphanage (German: Freistunde im Amsterdamer Waisenhaus) is an oil on canvas painting by the German painter Max Liebermann, from 1881 to 1882. It depicts a scene that takes place in the courtyard of the orphanage in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. The style of the work is realistic with impressionistic tendencies. It is held in the Städel, in Frankfurt am Main.[1]
Liebermann often worked in the Netherlands. In the summer of 1876 he stayed in Haarlem, where he studied works by Frans Hals, with his friend, the etcher William Unger. From Haarlem he also often traveled to Amsterdam. He was fascinated with the hustle and bustle of the girls in the sunlit courtyard of the civic orphanage in the Kalverstraat. After much effort, and with Unger's help, he was given permission to paint there. Fellow painters were surprised to see him painting en plein air in a courtyard surrounded by girls, which was still very unusual at the time. In July he created several studies of the courtyard and the dining room of the orphanage.[2]
The current painting was created a few years later, using previous sketches, in the winter of 1881/82, in Liebermann's studio in Munich. Some of Liebermann's paintings had attracted attention in the Paris Salon in 1880, and his treatment of sunlight was particularly praised.[3] With the current painting, he transformed the sketches and impressions of the orphanage, his favorite Amsterdam subject, into a coherent work with a similar lighting mood.[1]