Villa 

Max Liebermann painted this idyllic scene of a villa using oil on canvas. The thick application of paint is key here; Liebermann’s brushstrokes, visible across the entire surface, give the scene a sense of immediacy. This technique, known as impasto, not only adds texture but also captures the fleeting quality of light filtering through the trees. It’s a far cry from the smooth, almost invisible brushwork valued in earlier academic painting, where the goal was to create an illusion of reality. Liebermann’s approach, by contrast, celebrates the materiality of paint itself. By leaving visible marks, he draws attention to the labor involved in the painting’s creation, reminding us that the image is not a window onto the world, but a crafted object, born of skilled work. This shift in focus, from the subject to the act of painting, marks a significant moment in the history of modern art, where process became as important as the final product.