Harold Liebmann 1895 -1960

Harold Liebmann working on a watercolor of musicians at Ridgewood Farm, Hannacroix, NY.

According to his birth certificate, Harold Liebmann was born "Arthur Hans Otto Liebmann" on 7 January 1895, in Leipzig, Germany, to Lutheran parents. During his career newspaper articles have listed his place of birth as Holland and Austria, as well as Germany, but these may have been concessions to the climate of the times in which he lived. In addition, there is a photo of Liebmann in his photo album, marked "Scala Berlin - 1932" but the name on the photo is imprinted "Harald Livell."

Harold as he appears in a Soviet book of great Russian dancers.

Livell is not a common surname. In fact, it may have been a "made up" stage name that he used for a while. The unusual thing about it is that two photographs of Livell, both of which clearly are Liebmann, appear in a Soviet book of "Great Russians" in the "Modern Dance" section. These showed up on Singapore eBay in 2007 for sale by an Israeli postcard dealer.

We don't have any verifiable information about Harold's young life, so must rely on what he and his wife, Lola, said. There are various clues in newspaper articles and reviews that point to the possibility that he may have graduated from the Leipzig Humboldt Gymnasium and then studied art at the Kunstschule, Weimar. If one could place him at the Bauhaus in Weimar following WWI, it would not be a big surprise. According to various newspaper stories, Liebmann trained horses in the German Army during WWI. This seems plausible based on his interest in horses and his use of horses as a motif in his artwork.

Harold Liebmann, "Horses in Pasture," oil with sand on masonite.

Liebmann is described as having studied with André Derain who, along with Matisse, is considered the founder of the Fauvist Movement in France. If he did study with Derain it could not have been earlier than 1918, when Liebmann would have been 23. He may well have been in Paris somewhat later than that.

Following his studies in France, Liebmann went to Holland where he set up some form of art school at The Hague. It is also at this time that he probably married his first wife, Germaine, about whom we know virtually nothing. It has been reported that her family was in the diplomatic corps and she was a German citizen with Spanish ancestry. Harold and Germaine had one daughter, Anita.

The first indication we have of Harold's involvement with Lola is a 1929 photo of the two of them in Berlin with a lion cub on Lola's lap. Harold would have been 33 and Lola 22 at that time.

Harold and Lola, Berlin, 1929.

From later press clippings, Lola is reported to have been one of Harold's students at The Hague. By 1937 they were married and had one son, John.

Lola's birth certificate indicates that she was born in 1907 in Kiev, Auguste Imgard Erica Meyer and her parents were Lutherans. In 1923 Lola was granted German nationality through her mother, who was German. Like Harold, there is some question about some of this information as a later newspaper article mentions her name as "Lola Werbes", possibly a stage name.

Lola's resume appears to have been embellished as she is at times referred to as a former prima ballerina of the Paris Opera. This seems unlikely because she was only 22 by the time we know she was together with Harold. She was a scrupulous collector of newspaper reviews and there are none which confirm this idea.

A page from Lola's scrapbook with many of the places where Harold and Lola performed together.

At some point around 1929-1930 Harold and Lola devised a dance routine which was to be their staple for the next two decades. The earliest performance of the Dance of the Cobra (Snake, Python, etc.) took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Paris in 1931. Remarkably, they may have performed in 1931 on early British television, and indeed they had a well-documented history of television performances all the way through to rebroadcasts of the Ed Sullivan Show 1992, thirty-two years after Harold's death.

By 1932 Harold and Lola were established as dancers and performers in Europe and England, and made their first trip to America aboard the S/S France in August of 1932. In 1933 they were back performing in England and returned to New York in 1933 to perform under the auspices of the famous impresario, Clifford Fischer, who remained their friend and employer for almost a decade.

Harold and Lola at New York's Shubert Theatre during their first US tour in 1932. Harold was often quoted as saying, "I dance so that I can paint," or words to that effect.

Although Harold and Lola were not paid at the rate of big Hollywood stars, they clearly did well for themselves. In 1936 they were part of an extensive tour of South America, and in January of 1937 they purchased a large villa in Abbazia, Italy (now Opatija, Croatia). In May of 1937 their son, John, was born and he was left in the care of Lola's mother while they went back out on the road.

Early in 1938 Harold and Lola were placed in a concentration camp by Mussolini for reasons that are not altogether clear. Later in 1938 they had been released and were performing in Europe. In June of 1938 they were in London and by Fall 1938 they were in the USA. It appears that they remained primarily in the USA until after the end of WWII although we do have a photograph of them in Paris which is labeled, "Folies Bergere finale - 1940."

Clipping from the Hollywood Citizen-News, 19 May 1939.

The finale of Harold and Lola's "Dance of the Cobra" at the Folies Bergere, Paris, 1940.

During the early stages of WWII, Lola's mother died and a relative took John back to Germany where he spent the entirety of of the war. Anita, Harold's first child and her mother, Germaine, made it to the USA as indicated by the fact that by 1941 Anita was working for Clifford Fischer, and in 1945 she married Robert E. Hecht Jr., the heir to the Hecht department store fortune.

In 1941 Harold and Lola became US residents. Throughout the war Harold and Lola moved around the country with their act. He referred to himself as being Dutch, she Russian, since German nationality was not an asset in the entertainment business. They were able to earn enough that in August of 1944 they bought Ridgewood Farm in Hannacroix, NY, a large house and buildings on 170 acres south of Albany. This is especially remarkable because in 1943 they were both collecting unemployment. It is possible that the property was purchased with the proceeds from "Variety Time" and "Pan-Americana," two movies made by RKO in which they were featured.

At Ridgewood they established a safe place from which they operated for the rest of their lives.

Harold and Lola performed across the United States during the 1940s, not only in night clubs but also at state fairs and similar venues. Harold took these opportunities to make numerous drawings and paintings.

After the end of WWII, Harold and Lola continued to perform. In 1948 "Villa Palma" was seized by the People's Republic of Croatia, along with all its contents. Those contents included 300 of Harold's pre-1937 paintings and other work, all of which have disappeared. The property was never recovered due to a Catch-22 situation revolving around their German citizenship and then their US citizenship.

Over the course of his lifetime Harold had a number of shows of his work and toward the end of his life he received several commissions. Harold and Lola continued to perform together until around 1958 after which Lola satisfied her desire for performance with a successful dance school operated at Ridgewood Farm.

In 1960 Harold died, and following his death Lola frequently tried to have his work shown and marketed. But the times and prevailing taste were against this, and in the end most of his work remained in storage around the property in Hannacroix. It is a testament to Harold and Lola's popularity as performers that they last appeared on "Ed Sullivan Show" syndications in July of 1992. Harold's last exhibition of paintings was in 1984 (see below).

Harold was forever finding innovative ways of expressing himself. Toward the end of his career he experimented with adding sand to his paintings to give them texture; he produced a series of mural-like panels in concrete; and he developed a puppet theatre whose characters were made from everyday household items, and whose performances can be tracked for a number of years.

In 2006 Ridgewood Farm was sold and Liebmann's papers and work were gathered up and removed. At present this material is being catalogued and conservation work is being done on the items that have survived. There are approximately 650 oil paintings and watercolors, along with a large number of drawings, and some ceramics.

1947 - James Breasted, Director of the Los Angeles Museum, accepting one of Harold Liebmann's paintings for their permanent collection.

We do not have a complete record of where Harold's work has been shown, or where it may have been collected. It is evident that he was a dedicated and prolific painter so it would not be surprising if his work should surface in Europe or in America. Here is some of the information that we do have:

1944 - Exhibition, Washington Art Gallery, Miami Beach, FL.
1945 - Exhibition, American Water Color Society, National Academy Galleries, NY.
1945 - Exhibition, Worth Avenue Gallery, Palm Beach, FL.
1946 - Exhibition, Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles, CA.
1946 - Exhibition, Washington Art Gallery, Miami Beach, FL.
1947 - Exhibition, Catskill Arts & Crafts Guild, Hudson, NY.
1948 - Exhibition, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY.
1950 - Exhibition, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY.
1952 - Exhibition, Biblioteca Articas-Washington, Montevideo, Uruguay.
1953 - Exhibition, Catskill Arts & Crafts Guild, Hudson, NY.
1954 - Exhibition, Washington Art Gallery, Miami Beach, FL.
1957 - Exhibition, Catskill Arts & Crafts Guild, Hudson, NY.
1958 - Columbia Co Arts & Crafts Guild, Art Center, Hudson, NY
1960 - Memorial exhibition, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY.
1960 - Work exhibited, Whitney Museum, NYC.
1961 - Exhibition, Artcraft Gallery, 694 Broadway, Kingston, NY.
1966 - Exhibition, Albany Art Gallery, Albany, NY.
1977 - Exhibition, Greene Co Council on The Arts, Athens, NY.
1984 - Exhibition, Colombia-Greene Community College, Greenport, NY.

"Jungle and Pool [2]," Harold Liebmann.

For more information on Harold Liebmann's work, please contact:
Roosevelt Fine Art
P.O. Box 179
Greensboro Bend, VT 05842
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Copyright (c) 2007 Michael Roosevelt, All Rights Reserved.