Theodor Fontane and Italy

On the occasion of the exhibition Max Liebermann. An Impressionist from Berlin we present:

Theodor Fontane and Italy, lecture by Iwan-Michelangelo D’Aprile (Universität Potsdam, President of the Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft)

Presentation of the latest volume in the series “Schriften der Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft”: Grenzüberschreitungen in Theodor Fontanes Werk (De Gruyter 2024) in conversation with editors Claudia Buffagni (University for Foreigners of Siena) and Maria Paola Scialdone (University of Macerata).

The event inaugurates the cultural program of the Italian section of the Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft founded by Claudia Buffagni and Maria Paola Scialdone.

Despite their age difference, Theodor Fontane (1819-1898) and Max Liebermann (1847-1935) have much in common. Their strong ties to Berlin, their irony, their ability to observe and return the world, albeit through different languages, with attention and lucidity, and, last but not least, their trespassing into Italy in the later phase of the centuries-old Grand Tour experience. Their paths met both in the sphere of portraiture (Liebermann portrays Fontane) and on the level of illustration, when Liebermann, thirty years after the publication of the celebrated Fontanian novel Effi Briest (1896), dedicated a cycle of lithographs to him.

On the morning of November 9, at 9:30 a.m., the first assembly of the Italian section of the Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft will be held at the Goethe House, to which all interested parties (scholars or simple readers or connoisseurs who are passionate about Fontane, are invited to join by writing to: maria.scialdone@unimc.it

Image: Max Liebermann, Theodor Fontane, 1896, litografia su carta, Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft Berlin