Max Liebermann stands more than any other for the art of German Impressionism. As an artist, he was also one of the last great representatives of the traditional German bourgeoisie. His subject was the often contradictory living and working environment of his time in all its manifestations. He depicted the poverty of orphanages and old people's homes, elevated simple farmers and labourers to the status of pictorial subjects, painted beach and hunting scenes in the summer holidays of the Dutch seaside resorts, as well as celebrating the upper middle-class milieu at Pariser Platz and in the villa district of Berlin-Wannsee in elegant serenity and nobility.
| 1847 | born in Berlin |
| 1860 | Begins private painting lessons with Eduard Holbein and Carl Steffeck |
| 1866-1868 | Matriculation to study chemistry at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, but mainly took private painting lessons with Carl Steffeck |
| 1869-1872 | Studied at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule in Weimar under the history painter Ferdinand Pauwels and the landscape painter Theodor Hagen |
| 1872 | Exhibition of his first large painting »Die Gänserupferinnen« at the Kunstausstellung in Hamburg |
| 1873-1878 | Moves to Paris with a studio in Montmartre and is influenced by the naturalistic painting of the Barbizon School |
| 1875/1876 | Travelling to Holland, to Zandvoort, Haarlem and Amsterdam, under the influence of the Hague School a strong turn towards open-air painting |
| 1878-1884 | Relocation in Munich |
| 1884 | Return to Berlin and Marriage to Martha Marckwald |
| 1889 | Medal of honour and admission to the Société des Beaux-Arts on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Paris |
| 1892 | One of the founders of the Freie Künstlervereinigung in protest against the closure of the Edvard Munch exhibition at the Verein Berliner Künstler |
| 1894 | Participation at the Paris Salon |
| 1897 | to celebrate his 50th birthday, appointment as professor and exhibition at the Königliche Akademie der Künste in Berlin |
| 1898 | Member of the Königliche Akademie der Künste Berlin |
| after a disagreement in the jury of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition on works by Käthe Kollwitz and Walter Leistikow, the Berlin Secession was founded, he became chairman the following year | |
| 1899 | First exhibition of the Secession, for which he attracts Max Slevogt, Ernst Oppler and Lovis Corinth to Berlin; Berlin becomes the centre of modern art in Germany |
| 1903 | Co-founding of the Deutscher Künstlerbund |
| 1910 | The frequently documented rejection of new styles, especially Expressionism, leads to the crisis of the Secession movement and the founding of the Neue Sezession |
| 1914-1916 | With the outbreak of the First World War, he provides patriotic illustrations for »Kriegszeit«, published by Paul Cassirer |
| 1917 | Extensive retrospective at the Prussian Academy of Arts on the celebration of his 70th birthday and the establishment of the Max Liebermann Cabinet in the Nationalgalerie the following year |
| 1920 | President of the Preußische Akademie der Künste Berlin |
| 1933 | After the National Socialists seized power, he resigned his honorary presidency and membership of the Preußische Akademie der Künste |
| 1935 | died in Berlin |
