Max Liebermann spend the first summer in his newly built villa on the shores of Lake Wannsee in 1910. Today the address is still the same: Colomierstraße 3. The first time he painted this small driveway to his wonderful estate on Wannsee was in 1916. The painting, which was lost for a long time, shows a slightly different view with the garden gate and clear indications of the house on the right. Eberle's catalogue raisonné lists three more paintings that vary in size and depiction, which is not unusual, as Max Liebermann often explored very specific aspects of his surroundings in his paintings. He showed a strong commitment to the surroundings of the villa on Wannsee, where he had created a retreat for him and his family in 1910 - a pleasant place, where he made some of his most important paintings.

Colomierstrasse is a small dead-end road lined with trees on both sides and leads to Max Liebermann's famous Villa am Wannsee. We can barely see the driveway to his house, which shines brightly through the lush greenery, behind the second tree on the right-hand side. In contrast to the 1916 painting, Max Liebermann did not concentrate on a precise characterization of the visible parts of the building, namely the entrance gate and the house. Instead, he focuses on the play of the light refracting through the leaves on the ground in the small street. Bright spots shine between bluish shadows. It is an atmospheric, impressionist painting par excellence that Liebermann demonstrates, and for which he is so famous.

The exceptional provenance of this magnificent painting should also be noted at this point:
The work comes from the collection of Albert Janus, who played a key role in preserving the art collection of Karl Ernst Osthaus after his death in 1922. The Osthaus Collection was up for sale and the existence of the Folkwang Museum was in jeopardy. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Albert Janus, it was possible to secure funds for the purchase. He was able to organize the impressive sum of 10 million Reichsmark, of which 6 million Reichsmark alone came from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Kohlensyndikat, which he had chaired since 1918. [EH]