Face Value. Wilhelm Leibl & August Sander

Cologne

Coquettishly, a lady sits on a chaise-longue, smokes a pipe and sizes up her opposite number with a cool look. The man next to her poses histrionically, and casts an adoring gaze at his eccentric counterpart, as if in yearning. The two are only inches apart, and yet they are separated by half a century. ‘The Young Parisienne’ was immortalized in oils by Wilhelm Leibl in 1869, while the ‘Tenor’ was captured by August Sander’s camera c. 1928. Their encounter is just one in this collection of more than 80: Face Value. Wilhelm Leibl & August Sander is a fascinating dialogue across the media and the decades.

The painter Wilhelm Leibl (1844–1900) and the photographer August Sander (1876–1964) are among the most important German portrait artists. Even though the two masters almost certainly never met during their lifetimes, they shared a fascination for the human face, as curator Roland Krischel has impressively demonstrated in this exhibition. In nine chapters, Face Value traces an unexpected variety of tangents, intersections, and parallels, which are revealed by the portraiture of these two exceptional artists. Now that the two are at last meeting face to face, we can see to our surprise that Wilhelm Leibl can be counted among the precursors of August Sander.

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum

May 17 – August 11, 2013
Obenmarspforten
50667 Cologne
Germany

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