Gretchen Wohlwill - Wirtshausgarten - 1912

 

Gretchen Wohlwill was trained as a painter at the art school of Valeska Röver under Ernst Eitner and Arthur Illies. In the years before the outbreak of the First World War, she spent several periods in Paris and studied for a time with Henri Matisse. She also completed training as an art teacher and taught at the Emilie-Wüstenfeld Girls' School in Hamburg from 1911. Teaching secured Wohlwill's livelihood, allowing her to work as a freelance artist. In 1919, she was one of the co-founders of the Hamburg Secession.

The painting, created around 1912, is part of the "Collection of Paintings from Hamburg" founded by Alfred Lichtwark. According to Gustav Pauli, Lichtwark's successor, Wohlwill "occupied a mediating position between the late Impressionism and the newer forms." Accordingly, Wohlwill's painting shows the reception of Max Liebermann, especially his painting "Terrace at the Restaurant Jacob in Nienstedten on the Elbe," which had been on display at the Hamburger Kunsthalle since 1903. She adopted the flickering spots of light that are ubiquitous in Liebermann's work and also chose a pub garden as a place of leisure. However, while Liebermann had focused on a bourgeois audience in his depiction, Wohlwill primarily showed a scene with empty tables and unoccupied chairs. Unlike Liebermann, she avoided any narrative or anecdotal content and focused entirely on the effect of color, light, and shadow. 

Source: Hamburger Kunsthalle