Secession

The 1890s saw the formation of secession movements across German-speaking Europe. These were independent exhibiting societies, often run by artists and free from the control of local art academies. Munich's Secession was founded in 1892, Vienna's in 1897, and Berlin's the following year, with Max Liebermann as president. The various Secession exhibitions, usually held annually, became leading venues for the display of progressive art. Impressionists like Liebermann and Max Slevogt and expressionists like Lovis Corinth and the young Max Beckmann all participated.

Secession was anti-academic and international in outlook and pitted itself against the conservative art policy of the emperor. This was especially true in Berlin, where the bombastic painter of imperial grandeur, Anton von Werner, held power. Close to the emperor, he promoted rigid academic training and a nationalistic art at the service of the state. By the turn of the century, the vivid naturalism that was Werner's trademark was deemed obsolete by increasing numbers of artists. The slashing brushwork and raw emotion of paintings such as Corinth's Samson Blinded (top right), in which the ailing artist expressed his own suffering through that of the Old Testament hero, signaled a new direction in German art.

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