The Terrace at the Hotel Louis C. Jacob in Nienstedten on the Elbe

Around 1900 the director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Alfred Lichtwark, was running an unusual experiment. He invited modern painters to Hamburg to paint places the locals already knew, hoping that a familiar view would make the new way of painting easier to accept for a conservative city. Liebermann came from Berlin in the summer of 1902, his second working stay of this kind, and took a room at the Hotel Jacob on the Elbchaussee, a garden restaurant high on the bank of the Elbe that Hamburg families had been visiting on outings since the late 18th century. He chose its terrace under the lime trees. The sun comes through the leaves in loose, bright patches on the gravel and on the white chairs, and on the right the river opens up beyond the railing. The Kunsthalle bought the canvas from him in 1903, using money left to the museum in a Hamburg citizen's estate.