Lovis Corinth

Lovis Corinth, alongside Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt, emerged as one of Germany's three foremost exponents of Impressionism. However, the label 'Impressionist' does not fully capture the diverse range of Corinth's work. Starting from traditional academic roots, he evolved over a fifty-year career into a painter whose expressive use of form and color was pioneering, placing him at the forefront of modernism.

Biography of Lovis Corinth

Lovis Corinth, the son of a wealthy tanner, grew up in provincial East Prussia. Despite his struggles with self-doubt and bouts of depression, which seemed to hinder a promising artistic career, he pursued formal art education. After an initial period of academic study in Königsberg, he trained in painting at the Academy of Art in Munich from 1880 to 1883. From 1884 to 1887, Corinth refined his skills in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he studied under the Salon painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, who taught him the art of painting the nude model.

Bouguereau, a leading figure in French academic painting of the late nineteenth century, influenced Corinth's early work, particularly in his approach to literary subjects, which often featured large, figure-rich compositions. While Corinth did not seek to replicate Bouguereau's technical precision, he was guided by his teacher's pictorial style for some time. During this period, Corinth also developed a deep admiration for seventeenth-century Dutch painters, with Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Rubens serving as his primary inspirations. At this early stage in his career, however, Corinth had little exposure to the French Impressionists.

In 1888, after eight years in Munich, Lovis Corinth moved to Berlin, where he found kindred spirits in Max Klinger, Walter Leistikow, and Karl Stauffer-Bern, all of whom shared his desire for modern artistic expression. However, disillusioned by his lack of success, Corinth returned to Munich just three years later. There, he became increasingly involved in the city's literary and artistic circles, eventually joining the Munich Secession in 1892.

The year 1900 marked a pivotal moment in Lovis Corinth's career. After the Munich Secession rejected his painting Salome, which he had greatly hoped would be successful, his friend Walter Leistikow encouraged him to move to Berlin. Leistikow, who had co-founded the Berlin Secession in 1898 with Max Liebermann and the gallerist Paul Cassirer, actively supported Corinth’s membership in the new group. He also introduced Corinth to key figures in Berlin's art scene. Thanks to the backing of Leistikow, Liebermann, and Cassirer, Corinth quickly emerged as a leading figure in Berlin’s vibrant artistic community.

In 1901, Lovis Corinth established a private painting school for women, with Charlotte Berend, his future wife, among his first students. As his pupil, model, muse, and later the mother of his children, she became his lifelong spiritual partner.

Corinth's prominence in Berlin's art scene grew as he took on roles including committee member and, from 1911, chairman of the Berlin Secession. This period marked the zenith of his success. However, in December 1911, Corinth suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on one side. The physical and psychological shock of his condition led to a heightened awareness of his own fragility. Despite this, he drew on inner reserves of strength, which ignited a surge of creative energy and a new level of painterly freedom in his work.

Despite the severe physical handicap he endured, Lovis Corinth developed an expressive language of groundbreaking intensity that completely abandoned academic conventions. In the last fifteen years of his life, he discovered a renewed connection to nature, shifting his focus to landscapes and flower still lifes. 

The Art of Lovis Corinth

During the early 1890s, Lovis Corinth's landscapes, as well as some of his portraits, nudes, and interiors, began to reflect the influence of plein-air painting. His exploration of existential themes such as love, sexuality, and death often drew on subjects from Greek mythology, Christianity, and classical literature. Departing from the Old Master tradition, Corinth aimed to create new, equally compelling visual narratives.

Many of his works from this period flirted with the burlesque, their directness verging on exaggeration. Often dramatic, these images could surprise viewers to the point of absurdity, leading to perceptions of tastelessness and a lack of dignity. This controversial style caused significant rifts among contemporary audiences and critics, contributing to Corinth's failure to gain full acceptance within Munich's art circles.

In 1919, Lovis Corinth and his wife acquired a plot of land and built a house in Urfeld on Lake Walchensee in the Upper Bavarian Alps. This house served as a retreat, a source of inspiration, and a refuge from the bustling life of Berlin. The changing views of the Alps at different times of day, seasons, and weather conditions sparked a substantial body of work. In these depictions of the lake and its surroundings, Corinth pushed the boundaries of artistic experimentation. His drawings, watercolors, and paintings represent striking variations on a single theme, with the landscape serving as a vehicle to express his inner life and emotions.

Echoing the Seelenlandschaften of Romanticism, these works transform into melancholic spaces of retreat and reflection, projecting his introspective self-analysis — landscapes of his inner voice. Today, Corinth’s "Walchensee" paintings are considered the pinnacle of his later work and highlight his significant role among the pioneers of modernism.