Tracing the sheets: The prints collection of Gertrud and Friedrich Lieber. Provenance research into works from Oldenburg State Museum prints collection

The one-year project “Tracing the sheets: The prints collection of Gertrud and Friedrich Lieber”, which finished on September 30, 2016, focused on the parts of the prints collection holdings that had not previously been included in provenance research at Oldenburg State Museum for Art and Cultural History. Whereas research in previous years had primarily examined the extensive paintings and furniture holdings, the second funded project now focused on the Lieber prints collection, which represents one of the most significant expansions of the prints collection at Oldenburg State Museum for Art and Cultural History. Despite this, very little research had been carried out into the collection since its inclusion in the State Museum’s holdings, and nothing was known about the Leipzig collectors Gertrud and Friedrich Lieber. Some of the inventory cards for the individual sheets are stamped “Graphik-Slg. Lieber, Oldenburg” (Lieber prints collection, Oldenburg), but this was probably done when the collection was acquired by the State Museum for Art and Cultural History. As part of the State Museum’s review of the prints collection carried out from August 1, 2012, to July 31, 2014, and research in 2014 in connection with the exhibition “From Rembrandt to Richter. Master’s sheets of the prints collection from Oldenburg State Museum”, it came to be assumed that the collectors were Gertrud and Georg Lieber. Based on this understanding, the preliminary work started for the project described here, which was consequently named “Tracing the sheets: The prints collection of Gertrud and Georg Lieber”.

The recent research activities at the State Museum, which received substantial support from Leipzig City Archives and its holdings expert Dr. Anett Müller, resulted in the past research findings having to be revised. The collector and husband of Gertrud Lieber was the teacher Carl Friedrich Lieber, who was also a collector, author and art historian. Georg Lieber was a lithographer and draftsman who also happened to live in Leipzig, but who had no connection with the Lieber prints collection and was not personally related to the collector couple. Accordingly, the project was carried out under the title “Tracing the sheets: The prints collection of Gertrud and Friedrich Lieber”. The lithographer and draftsman Georg Lieber is, however, mentioned in the final report in order to clarify any confusion between the two men.

(c) Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg