On the Alster in Hamburg 

Editor: This lively oil painting is "On the Alster in Hamburg" by Max Liebermann. The choppy brushstrokes really create a sense of bustling activity on the water. So much to see! How might we approach interpreting this scene? Curator: From a materialist perspective, it’s fascinating to consider the societal elements at play. Think about the cost of the leisure depicted. Oil paints themselves were becoming more widely available, produced on an industrial scale and marketed toward a burgeoning middle class with more leisure time and money to spend. Editor: That’s a great point! I hadn’t considered that the painting itself is evidence of this increased leisure. So the *creation* of the painting is tied to consumerism? Curator: Exactly! The clothing, the boats, the hats – all consumer goods readily available for purchase, signalling a certain status. Note how the subjects are placed: there's this almost industrial vision on the horizon. The labor and production enabling this very leisure are built right into the scenery. Editor: So, rather than just a pretty scene, it's a portrait of a specific moment in economic history being captured with an increasingly commodified art material, a mass production of oil paint. Is the roughness of the impressionistic brushwork also relevant? Curator: Absolutely. Consider it less as about *capturing* the light than *showing* the speed of consumption and production and industry—a rapidly changing world made visible through the gestures of applying the paint itself. Editor: Wow, that totally changes how I see it. Before I was just admiring the composition, but now I see a more complex narrative about class, leisure and industrial development embedded within the brushstrokes themselves. Curator: Indeed. Considering the means of production and consumption reshapes our appreciation entirely, revealing the social and economic dimensions ingrained in this artwork.