"Bavarian Flower Girls"

Here for your consideration is a vibrant portrait of a pair of Bavarian flower girls in traditional dress. The painting is unlined and has recently been cleaned. Circa 1875. The painting is housed in its original ornate gold leaf frame in very fine condition with very minor restoration. On the verso is a stamp with the H. Lieber Company name inprinted. See below for more information. Provenance: Saint Petersburg, Florida estate. Overall measurements framed 45 by 38 inches.

Herman Lieber (1832-1908) was a member of a family that came to Indianapolis from Germany following the 1848 revolutions. The Lieber family made a considerable impact on business and cultural life in the Hoosier capital.
Born in Dusseldorf on 23 August 1832, Lieber came to Indianapolis in 1854, where he opened a small bindery near Washington and Meridian streets. He married Mary Metzger in 1857, thus making an alliance with another prominent German family. Their six children (Otto R., Carl H., Robert, Herman P., Ida, and Anna) married members of the Pfaff, Pantzer, Kothe, and Stempfel families.
Herman Lieber, along with members of the Fletcher banking family, was one of the patrons who made it possible for T. C. Steele, William Forsyth, and other artists to study painting in Munich in the early 1880s. Herman established the H. Lieber Company (a firm specializing in picture frames and framing) in 1884, a business which the family kept going for several generations.

Herman influenced the establishment and operation of German institutions in Indianapolis, including the Athenaeum, the German-English School, and the Normal School of the North American Gymnastic Union. A prohibitionist, Lieber served as president of the Anti-Prohibition League of Indiana in 1882. Herman Lieber, Sr. died on 22 March 1908 on a train near Flagstaff, Arizona.

Carl H. Lieber, the second son of Herman and Marianne (Metzger) Lieber, was born on 16 March 1866 in Indianapolis. He joined the H. Lieber Company as a teenager after receiving his education at the German English School and Shortridge High School. He married Meta Pantzer of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1894. The union bore four children: Lili (Hofmann), Carl T., and twins Hilda (Turner) and Meta (Hatcher).
Devoted to civic causes, Lieber was a founding member of the Art Association of Indianapolis and the Portfolio Club. He served on the Board of Directors of the John Herron Art Institute from 1898, and was chairman of the Fine Arts Committee at the time of his death. Other memberships included Portfolio Club, the Athenaeum, the University Club, and the Little Theater Society. Lieber was also president of the Normal School of the North American Gymnasium Union. He died on 6 April 1929 while golfing in Hot Springs, Arkansas.