Lovis Corinth

Self-portrait with Skeleton, 1896, oil on canvas, 66 x 86 cm,

Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus
Morning Sunshine, 1910, Hessian State Museum, Darmstadt

The Artist and His Family, 1909, oil on canvas, Niedersächsis-

ches Landesmuseum, Hanover

Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a Ger-

man artist and writer whose mature work as a painter
and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and
expressionism. Susanna and the Elders, 1923, Lower Saxony State Museum
Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin
Secession group, later succeeding Max Liebermann as
the group’s president. His early work was naturalistic in ties. His use of color became more vibrant, and he cre-
approach. Corinth was initially antagonistic towards the ated portraits and landscapes of extraordinary vitality and
expressionist movement, but after a stroke in 1911 his power. Corinth’s subject matter also included nudes and
style loosened and took on many expressionistic quali- biblical scenes.

1
2 2
Walchensee Panorama, 1924
Portrait Ernst Oppler, Neue Galerie Kassel
1 Early life
Corinth was born Franz Heinrich Louis on 21 July 1858
in Tapiau, in Prussia. The son of a tanner, he displayed
a talent for drawing as a child. In 1876 he went to study
painting in the academy of Königsberg. Initially intending
to become a history painter, he was dissuaded from this
course by his chief instructor at the academy, the genre
painter Otto Günther.[1] In 1880 he traveled to Munich,
which rivaled Paris as the avant-garde art center in Eu-
rope at the time. There he studied briefly with Franz von
Defregger before gaining admittance to the Academy of
Fine Arts Munich, where he studied under Ludwig von
Löfftz.[1] The realism of Corinth’s early works was en-
couraged by Löfftz’s teaching, which emphasized careful
observation of colors and values.[1] Other important in-
fluences were Courbet and the Barbizon school, through
their interpretation by the Munich artists Wilhelm Leibl
and Wilhelm Trübner.
Except for an interruption for military service in 1882– Corinth explored every print technique except aquatint;
83, Corinth studied with Löfftz until 1884.[1] He then he favored drypoint and lithography. He created his first
traveled to Antwerp, where he greatly admired the paint- etching in 1891 and his first lithograph in 1894. He ex-
CAREER
ings of Rubens, and then in October 1884 to Paris where
he studied under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony
Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian.[2] He concentrated
especially on improving his drawing skills, and made
the female nude his frequent subject. He was disap-
pointed, however, in his repeated failure to win a medal
at the Salon, and returned to Königsberg in 1888 when he
adopted the name “Lovis Corinth”.[3]
2 Career
In 1891, Corinth returned to Munich, but in 1892 he
abandoned the Munich Academy and joined the Munich
Secession. In 1894 he joined the Free Association, and
in 1899 he participated in an exhibition organized by the
Berlin Secession. These nine years in Munich were not
his most productive, and he was perhaps better known for
his ability to drink large amounts of red wine and cham-
pagne.
Corinth moved to Berlin in 1900, and had a one-man ex-
hibition at a gallery owned by Paul Cassirer. In 1902 at
the age of 43, he opened a school of painting for women
and married his first student, Charlotte Berend, some 20
years his junior. Charlotte was his youthful muse, his
spiritual partner, and the mother of his two children. She
had a profound influence on him, and family life became
a major theme in his art.
He published numerous essays on art history, and in
1908 published Das Erlenen der Malerei (“On Learning
to Paint”).[4]
In December 1911, he suffered a stroke, and was partially
paralyzed on his left side. Thereafter he walked with a
limp, and his hands displayed a chronic tremor.[5] With
the help of his wife, within a year he was painting again
with his right hand. His disability inspired in the artist
an intense interest in the simple, intimate things of daily
life. In the summer of 1919, for example, he produced
a cycle of casual etchings of his family in their country
home.[5] It was also at this time that landscapes became
a significant part of his oeuvre. These landscapes were
set at the Walchensee, a lake in the Bavarian Alps where
Corinth owned a house. Their lively picturing, in bright
colors, tempt many to consider the Walchensee series as
his best work.
From 1915–25, he served as President of the Berlin
Secession.[6] In 1920 an anthology of his art-historical
writings was published in Berlin.[7] In 1922 his works
were exhibited in the Venice Biennale.[8]
2.1 Printmaking
 3

perimented with the woodcut medium but made only 12 5 See also
woodcuts, all of them between 1919–1924.[9] He was
quite prolific, and in the last 15 years of his life he pro- • List of German painters
duced more than 900 graphic works, including 60 self-
portraits. The landscapes he created between 1919 and • Degenerate art
1925 are perhaps the most desirable images of his entire
graphic oeuvre. He painted numerous self-portraits, and
made a habit of painting one every year on his birthday 6 Notes
as a means of self-examination.[10] In many of his self-
portraits he assumed guises such as an armored knight
[1] Makela
(The Victor, 1910), or Samson (The Blinded Samson,
1912).[11] A self-portrait of 1924 is in the Museum of [2] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 12.
Modern Art, New York City.
[3] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 13.

[4] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 16.

3 Honors and death [5] Holland Cotter (12 June 1992), German Artist Haunted
By a Threatening World New York Times.

On 15 March 1921 Corinth received an honorary doc-
torate from the University of Königsberg. In 1925, he
traveled to the Netherlands to view the works of his fa-
vorite Dutch masters.[1] He caught pneumonia and died
in Zandvoort.
[6] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 19.
[7] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 20.
[8] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 21.
[9] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 369.

[10] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 142.

[11] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, pp. 41–42.

4 Legacy
[12] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 22.
In 1926, a commemorative exhibition of Corinth’s paint- [13] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, p. 23.
ings and watercolors was presented at the Nationalgalerie
in Berlin, and an exhibition of his prints and drawings [14] Corinth, Schuster, Vitali, & Butts 1996, pp. 23–24.
was held at the Berlin Academy.[12] By 1930 the Nation-
algalerie acquired several major paintings by Corinth in [15] 1914 painting is returned to heirs Los Angeles Times, 25
September 2007.
addition to those already in its collection.[13]
During the Third Reich, Corinth’s work was condemned
by the Nazis as degenerate art. In 1937, Nazi authorities
removed 295 of his works from public collections, and
7 References
transported seven of them to Munich where they were
displayed in March 1937 in the Degenerate Art Exhibi- • Corinth, L., Schuster, P.-K., Vitali, C., & Butts, B.
tion.[14] (1996). Lovis Corinth. Munich: Prestel. ISBN 3-
7913-1682-6
In 1910 Corinth had donated the painting Golgatha for
the altar of the church of his birthplace, Tapiau. At • Corinth, L., Uhr, Horst, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Ox-
the end of the Second World War, when the Red Army ford: University of California Press, 1990. ISBN
invaded East Prussia, this painting disappeared without 0-520-06776-2
trace. Tapiau was among the few East Prussian places
not devastated by the war, which makes it likely that the • Makela, Maria. “Corinth, Lovis.” Grove Art Online.
painting was looted rather than destroyed. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
In 2007, the German city of Hanover returned a painting
by Corinth to the heirs of Jewish collector Curt Glaser
who sold it in 1933 to fund his escape from the Nazis. 8 External links
The painting, Romische Campagna (Roman Landscape)
(1914) was handed to Glaser’s heirs, represented by his • Gallery at “Museumsportal Schleswig-Holstein”
U.S.-based niece and her daughter.[15]
• Gallery of works by Lovis Corinth
The house where Corinth was born is still in the town,
which is now Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. • Corinth Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
4 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

• German masters of the nineteenth century : paint-

ings and drawings from the Federal Republic of
Germany, a full text exhibition catalog from The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains ma-
terial on Lovis Corinth (no. 13-16)
 5

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text
• Lovis Corinth Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovis_Corinth?oldid=745497928 Contributors: Space Cadet, Rl, RedWolf, Giftlite,
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9.2 Images
• File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Origi-
nal artist: ?
• File:Corinth,_Lovis_-_Morgensonne_-_1910.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Corinth%2C_
Lovis_-_Morgensonne_-_1910.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Zeno.org, ID number 2000394879X Original artist: Lovis
Corinth
• File:Corinth-neue-galerie2.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Corinth-neue-galerie2.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: http://neuegaleriekassel.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/corinth-rahmen-neue-galerie2.jpg Original artist:
Ernst Oppler
• File:Corinth_Künstler_u_Familie.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Corinth_K%C3%BCnstler_u_
Familie.JPG License: Public domain Contributors: Uploader Hajotthu at de.wikipedia Original artist: Lovis Corinth
• File:Corinth_johanna_02.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Corinth_johanna_02.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Original artist: Lovis Corinth
• File:Lovis_Corinth_010.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Lovis_Corinth_010.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by
DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Lovis Corinth
• File:Lovis_Corinth_013.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Lovis_Corinth_013.jpg License: Public
domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by
DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Lovis Corinth

9.3 Content license

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