Lovis Corinth

Lovis Corinth (Jul 21, 1858 - Jul 17, 1925) was a German painter and printmaker whose mature work realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.

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 approach. Corinth was initially antagonistic towards the expressionist movement, but after a stroke in 1911 his style loosened and took on many expressionistic qualities. His use of color became more vibrant, and he created portraits and landscapes of extraordinary vitality and power. Corinth's subject matter also included nudes and biblical scenes.

His parents Heinrich and Wilhelmine Corinth ran a tannery as well as a larger agricultural enterprise. He was the only common child of the two, but on the mother's side had five half-siblings, with whom he grew up The birthplace still exists, a memorial recalls the painter

From 1866 to 1873, Corinth went to the Kneiphöfische Gymnasium in Königsberg. During this time, he lived with his aunt in Königsberg. In the year 1870, soldiers also entered the house of his aunt. When his mother died in 1873, Corinth returned The court of his parents, a little later a desire arose to become a painter

A little later his father sold the estate in Tapiau and moved with his son to Koenigsberg to give him a painting training Corinth went to the Kunstakademie Königsberg and as a pupil of Otto Günther he became acquainted with the basics of painting as well as the conservative historical painting Corinth went to Berlin and Thuringia to attend the Albert Brendel studios, then Director of the Weimar School of Art, as well as Friedrich Preller and Karl Buchholz Corinth's own works concentrated on portraits and landscapes

Munich, Antwerp, Paris:
In 1880 Corinth, on the recommendation of his teacher Günther, went to the Kunstakademie in Munich, which at the time was regarded as the most important center for painting alongside Paris, and was in close contact with the cultural scene of this city. Louis Corinth first attended the class of Franz von Defregger Ludwig Löfftz, a former pupil of Wilhelm Diez Among his fellow pupils were Hans Olde and Bernt Grönvold, with whom Corinth was still in contact for many years. Corinth joined the stream of Naturalism, which had just begun to oppose classic historical painting Nude painting played an important role in his education; In 1883 his painting Schacher on the Cross arose, in his conception influences of his teacher Löfftz as well as his former pupil Karl Stauffer-Berne. Another important teacher in Munich for Corinth was Wilhelm Trübner, for which he also wrote an obituary in 1920

Between 1882 and 1883 he interrupted his studies and gave his military service as a one-year volunteer, then went on a trip with his father to Italy and to Lake Garda. Afterwards he resumed his studies

In 1884, Corinth went to Antwerp for three months and studied there with Paul Eugène Gorge. In the same year he was able to record his first international success with his painting Das Komplott. The picture was awarded a bronze medal at an exhibition in London (questioned by Ulrike Lorenz) 1885 it is shown in the Paris Salon In the studio of Gorge the painting Negroes Othello, a portrayal of a black man, belongs to his most famous pictures. He also painted his first portrait of the painter Paul Eugène Gorge, who followed in 1898 and 1908 two more

In October of the year, he traveled to Paris to join the Academy of Académie Julian. He studied with Tony Robert-Fleury and Adolphe William Bouguereau, who brought him closer to the practice of nude painting of women (peintre de la femme) So that his further development, especially the shaping of his portraits of women in the coming years. He himself, however, had little success in Paris, and returned with about 20 large-format pictures, mainly nudes. Even at the same time modern and prominent Impressionists stayed in Paris for a few years Who had previously been deceased, such as Gustave Courbet or Édouard Manet in Paris, he did not find inspiration in the exhibitions of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Wilhelm Leibl and above all a retrospective of Jules Bastien-Lepage

In the summer of 1886, Corinth traveled with Hans Olde to the coast of the East to paint landscape impressions and portraits. In 1887, he returned to Königsberg and portrayed his father, and he did not have an exhibition of this picture at the Königsberg Academy success

In 1887, Louis Corinth moved to Berlin to spend the winter, where he met Max Klinger, Walter Leistikow, and Karl Stauffer-Berne. In Berlin, too, his first self-portrait, which was to be followed in the course of his life, probably arose the following year He returned to his now diligent father to Königsberg and portrayed him there several times before he died on 10 January 1889

Munich 1891 to 1900:
In 1890 Corinth returned to Munich in 1891. He went to Schwabing to find a flat in Schwabing, only a house next to his colleague's flat Ernst Oppler In the same year, Ernst Oppler noted the outlook from his studio window in several paintings with which he was dealing with the pleinairism that was at the time present in Munich, as did Waldriedes at Bernried - the artists left their atelier and took up motifs "This was transported in Germany mainly by Arnold Böcklin, Max Klinger and Hans Thoma, who were one of the most popular figures in the art scene in Munich. As the painters of Munich, Friedrich August von Kaulbach, Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck were among the above Corinth was the chief figure in the year of the Diogenes, a representation G of the Diogenes of Sinope in large format The exhibition of the picture in Munich's glass palace was not acknowledged with the hoped-for praise; On the other hand, he had a massive criticism that made Corinth doubt his work. His friend Otto Eckmann taught him the art of erasing, and until 1894 his eraser cycle tragedy comedies, in which he depicted the Jugendstil on one hand and the work of Max Klinger The other side

From 1892 onwards, a series of paintings reproduced the slaughter scenes and convinced the critics again. The pictures were realistic and impressed by their motifs. Corinth had found a connection to the "revolutionaries" of Munich 's art scene, which were not exhibited in the established glass palace The artists' association Allotria met in 1892, the Munich secession was founded, and Corinth also joined Max Liebermann, Otto Eckmann, Thomas Theodor Heine, Hans Olde, Hans Thoma, Wilhelm Trübner, Franz von Stuck, and Fritz von Uhde With Otto Eckmann, Trübner, Heine, Max Slevogt, Ernst Oppler, Hermann Obrist and Peter Behrens founded the Free Association of the XXIV 'to improve the exhibition situation. Thereupon the secession broke out The Munich Sezession excluded They found as free ver Of the XXIV / Munich 24 in the Galerie Eduard Schulte in Berlin

In 1895, Corinth painted the first painting, which he could sell at any time. It was exhibited in the glass palace and awarded a gold medal in the same year. Between 1895 and 1900, he exhibited a series of other paintings, which, however, did not attract much attention About a friend, Corinth came into contact with the Munich literary group around 1895/96. In 1896, Corinth was also one of the founders of the Freemason lodge in Faith. Among other things, he belonged to the writers Max Halbe, Eduard von Keyserling, Frank Wedekind and Otto Erich Hartleben , Which still exists today, and which he painted in 1898, the painting The Lodge Brothers, on which twelve members of his lodge are depicted. In the following years, a series of his most successful and until today best known paintings was created. 1897 he created his self portrait with skeleton. In 1897 the slaughter shop in Schäftlarn On the Isar as continuation of its Slaughter scenes as well as historical paintings depicting the nude painting such as The Witches and The Seduction of St. Antony When Lovis Corinth visited the first exhibition of the Berlin Secession in Berlin in 1899, Max Liebermann paid a visit, portrayed each other the portrait of the painter Lovis Corinth And a portrait of Max Liebermann from the 1899

After a move in Munich, he painted Salome, a picture in which he himself hoped for great success, but which was rejected for an exhibition of the Munich secession. This failure strengthened Corinth's intention to leave Munich and go to Berlin Contact to Walter Leistikow, who founded the Berlin Secession with Max Liebermann and Paul Cassirer in 1898 Salome became a success in Berlin with the second Secession exhibition in July 1900 and Corinth became "a capacity in Berlin" in his own words The Old and the Crucifixion were shown at this exhibition Von Leistikow received his first portraiture in Berlin


Berlin years:
Corinth moved to Berlin in the fall of 1901 and became a member of the Secession in Berlin. In the same year, the painting Perseus and Andromeda was exhibited at the Secession exhibition with Paul Cassirer - alongside paintings by the now deceased artists Vincent van Gogh, Wilhelm Leibl and Arnold Böcklin The studio in Klopstockstraße Corinth returned from Leistikow, and on October 14, 1901 Corinth opened a painting school. His first pupil was the then twenty-one-year-old Charlotte Berend, who stood him as a regular model. Another student was Erich Lasse. The painting school became a financial success Pictures became more famous

Already in December, Paul Cassirer organized an exhibition devoted exclusively to Lovis Corinth. One year later, Corinth was elected to the Secession Board. The portrait of the poet Peter Hille was presented with additional images by Corinth at the Secession exhibition in 1902: Samuel's curse on Saul, Die drei Grazien und die Selbstporträt mit Modell In addition to his works, pictures by Édouard Manet and Edvard Munch were exhibited, and the Hille portrait was bought in 1908 by the Kunsthalle Bremen

On a journey to the Pomeranian east coast, Corinth and Charlotte Berend came closer and began a relationship. On the trip, several portraits of her, to which he gave the new nickname "Petermannchen" used for her: Petermannchen und Paddel-Petermannchen Another portrait of the trip Was the portrait girl with a bull, on which Charlotte Berend led a powerful bull on his nasal ring, and found special attention in the secession of Berlin because of the significance it contained. Symbolically, the picture showed the current relationship of the couple, in which Corinth as Tamed bulls from the woman on a pink ribbon around the nose ring

From 1902 to 1903, Corinth collaborated with the director and theater owner Max Reinhardt. In 1902, he created the stage design and, together with Max Kruse, the costumes for Hans Oberlaender 's production of Salome by Oscar Wilde In 1903, he co - ordinated Reinhardt' s production of Maurice Maeterlincks Pelléas et Mélisande New Theater at the Schiffbauerdamm and together with Kruse Reinhardt's production of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Elektra at the Kleine Theater in Berlin

On 26 March 1904 married Lovis Corinth and Charlotte Berend, who decided for the double Berend-Corinth On 13 October 1904 came their joint son Thomas Corinth on the world and the family moved into the Händelstraße The daughter Wilhelmine Corinth followed five years later 13 June 1909

In the 1903 annual exhibition, Corinth presented mainly the girl with the bull and Odysseus fight with the beggar, followed by Tiny Senders and the burial in 1904. Also in 1904, Lovis Corinth became a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, the first joint exhibition with the Munich secessionists in the Kgl Kunstausstellationsgebäude am Königsplatz He again participated with Salome. In the same year, Cassirer presented an exhibition of Paul Cézanne in his gallery, which strongly influenced Corinth. In 1906, Corinth began his first major literary work, his self-biography, which he extended to his death in 1925 and the post-1926 posthumous Was published by his wife. In the same year, he produced a series of very well-known paintings, including the cross-acceptance, youth of Zeus, After bathing and Rudolf Rittner as Florian Geyer in 1907. The capture of Simons, The great martyrdom, the self portrait with glass as well The much-discussed lying act

In 1907 he drew drafts and figurines for Der Dämon and Minna von Barnhelm, which were not realized

In 1908, two writings of Corinth appeared: on the one hand the legends from the artist 's life, like the already mentioned autobiography an autobiographical work, on the other hand the book The learning of painting, a textbook in which he brought the art of painting closer to the reader and connected him with the His portrait of the painter Walter Leistikow the latter died that year, and besides the painting, Corinth also devoted a book entitled The Life of the Painter Leistikow, Which appeared in Casseler in 1910, he participated, among other things, with August von Brandis at the exhibition for Christian art in Duesseldorf, both of which were confirmed in a critique to convince less by theological than by artistic qualities

In 1910, Corinth was once again able to place some of his pictures in the now established Secession exhibition. This year he presented the weapons of Mars, footwashing and, above all, the family portrait. The artist and his family, on which he depicted his entire family, belonged to Max Liebermann To the most popular and sought-after artists of the Berlin Secession and in the same year several pictures could be sold to the Hamburg Kunsthalle

In 1911 Max Liebermann, as president of the Secession in Berlin, joined Max Slevogt, Paul Cassirer, and the chairman, while Lovis Corinth was elected as new chairman. In the same year the Secession organized an exhibition in honor of the late member Fritz By Uhde, also exhibited works by Pablo Picasso and Ferdinand Hodler at the exhibition. Corinth presented his paintings Nana and two portraits of Eduard Meyer. In December of the year he suffered a stroke which led to a half-sided paralysis between 1909 and 1917 Corinth spent longer stays in the young seaside resort Nienhagen near Bad Doberan and created several graphics and pictures with regional reference to Mecklenburg. In the spring of 1912 he spent with his wife on the Riviera to recover, and in the summer he painted The Blinded Simson Year, Paul C Assirer was re-elected to the Secession board - Corinth then resigned and rejected a position on the board or jury

In 1913, Georg Biermann published the first monograph on Lovis Corinth On the occasion of the reconciliation with Corinth, Paul Cassirer organized a major retrospective with Corinth's works opened by Max Liebermann. Overall, Corinth presented 228 oil paintings Year at the Grand Exhibition of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf in 1913, in Mannheim and the World Exposition in Ghent, as well as in various galleries and museums in Baden-Baden, Munich and Dresden. Also at the spring exhibition of the Berlin Secession, which celebrated its 15th anniversary, Ariadne on Naxos and Oriental carpet traders to see pictures of Corinth In the same exhibition the painter Henri Matisse was shown for the first time as well as many other important artists who had accompanied the first 15 years of the Secession The successes of the Secession and the exhibitions of Cassirer could not disappoint the internal disputes: In the same year there were massive accusations against Cassirer because of its double function As a jury member of the Secession and as an art salesman, who led to the departure of 42 artists, including Max Liebermann and the entire executive committee, from the Secession and the founding of the association known as Freie Secession. Lovis Corinth remained faithful to the Berlin Secession

In 1914, Corinth visited Monte Carlo and Rome, where he visited the frescoes of Raphael. Afterwards, his trip to St Moritz led to the end of World War One In addition to Slevogt, Liebermann, and Ernst Barlach, among the prominent artists who had patrioticly expressed this hope to Corinth, who had already expressed his patriotic attitude in the course of his lecture "On the Essence of Painting" in January 1914, before the Freie Studentenschaft of Berlin University A new beginning in which German art could show that it was the most important internationally:

"We want to show the world that German art today marches at the head of the world Fort with the Gallic-Slavic aftershaping of our last painting period!"
In 1915, Corinth was once again chairman of the Berlin Secession and designed an exhibition in which the old values of German painting were of particular importance. He himself made several still life and portraits, as well as the paintings of Joseph and Potiphar 's wife

In the following years, popular war pictures emerged, such as in 1917 Cain, as well as the portrait of the Great Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. In the same year author Karl Schwarz published a first comprehensive illustration of Corinth's drawings and graphics with the book The Graphic Works of Lovis Corinth Corinth to his native town of Tapiau, who made him an honorary citizen and received several works from him

In March 1918, the Secession of Berlin organized an exhibition on the 60th birthday of Corinth, on which 140 oil paintings were exhibited by him, and he was also represented in the spring exhibition with several works. At the same time, the Berlin National Gallery began with a systematic collection of his paintings Who were shown after the war in the New Division in the Crown Prince's Palace. He also received the professors' title from the Berlin Academy of the Arts. In the summer of 1918, tensions within the Secession broke out, Corinth intervened for Ernst Oppler and prevented his resignation In the same year, the war came to an end, the imperial empire collapsed and was replaced by the November Revolution and the subsequent Weimar Republic Corinth was thereby shaken by his belief in German painting:

"Thus the Hohenzollernsstaat, with its stump and stalk, is now exterminated. I feel myself to be a Prussian and imperial German"
Corinth's pupils in his time in Berlin included the painter Wilhelm Gallhof

Late work at Walchensee:
In 1919, Lovis Corinth bought a property in Urfeld (Walchensee) on which his wife Charlotte Berend built a house for him. He named it with the nickname for his wife Haus Petermann. The house at Walchensee became the artist's retreat Landscapes, portraits and still life, but also increasingly withdrawn from the active art scene. His pictures from Walchensee were also a great success. According to his own words "never sold more than just after the collapse." "In the same year, the erotic cover of the legends of antiquity appeared. In 1920, Collected writings were followed by a compilation of Corinth's most important contributions to essays and essays

The Albertus University of Königsberg gave him an honorary doctorate on 15 March 1921. He completed his self-biography until his death in 1925 and painted pictures such as The Red Christ, which clearly represents the brutality of the crucifixion, Flora and the last version of Susanna and the ancients In addition, the memory of the painter's work was portrayed by various colleagues from the painter, including Bernt Grönvold, Leonid Pasternak, and Georg Brandes. The Trojan horse, Carmencita and the portraits of his children, Thomas and Wilhelmine, were also important works of his later work

In 1922, Corinth again worked for the theater. For Victor Barnowsky's production of Faust I at the Lessingtheater (Berlin), he designed the stage design and costumes

On the occasion of his 65th birthday, the National Gallery organized an exhibition with 170 paintings in private ownership in 1923. Further exhibitions with works from his late work followed with the Secession exhibition in Berlin and the large Corinth exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Zürich and Königsberg 1924 In the same year, President Friedrich Ebert, in which, according to his own opinion, he saw less the Social Democrats, but rather the current ruler of Germany, to whom he attested a good character

In 1925, Corinth became an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Arts, and his watercolor paintings were exhibited in Berlin. His last major works include The Beautiful Woman Imperia, as well as his last great work, Ecce Homo, which he painted before traveling on June 16, 1925 to From there to Amsterdam. He wanted to see the pictures of Frans Hals and Rembrandt again. On July 17 he died in Zandvoort, near Amsterdam, with a pneumonia. His corpse was transferred to Berlin, where he was buried at the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf. His tomb, City of Berlin, there is a significant monograph by Alfred Kuhn in the block Trinitatis, Feld 8, Erbbegräbnis 47 Postum, and two important commemorative exhibitions took place in Berlin with the exhibition of paintings and watercolors in the National Gallery and the graphic exhibition of the Academy of Arts in 1926

In 1939 the physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg bought Haus Petermann, where his wife lived with the five children of the couple during the Second World War

Corinth's works in the time of National Socialism:
Although Corinth was a prominent and respected representative of German art during his lifetime, and presented it in a very patriotic manner, many of his works during the period of national socialism in Germany were seen very critically. While the Impressionist early work corresponded to the ideals of the National Socialists, , Partly very expressionist works considered "degenerate" This transformation in the work of the artist was interpreted as a result of his stroke in 1911; A further increase after 1918 was again explained by a stroke which, in truth, had not been true Alfred Rosenberg gave the direction in the "myth"

A certain robustness was shown by L C, but this mastermind of the brush also zerged in the muddy-colored bastardy of the Syrian-made Berlin
In the course of the "cleaning" a total of 295 of his pictures were confiscated, including a large part of the collection of the National Gallery as well as the Hamburger Kunsthalle Some of the works were shown in the exhibition "Entartete Kunst" in Munich in the same year , Mainly to Switzerland

works:
Paintings, Drawings, Graphics:
Lovis Corinth produced far more than a thousand paintings and a similar number of watercolors, drawings and graphics, despite his relatively large scale, his work on the art market is in demand and achieves very good prices

The Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig houses a large collection of works by Lovis Corinth, with 13 paintings and about 400 graphic sheets. The Belvedere in Vienna has works that were created between 1896 and 1924 and offer a comprehensive overview of Corinth's entire oeuvre

In addition, Corinth wrote a series of books and essays in various journals of art history

fonts:
The Life of Walter Leistikov A Piece of the History of the History of History Bruno Cassirer, Berlin 1910
The Song of Songs With Numerous Lithographs 5 Works of the Pan-Press, Paul Cassirer, 1911
On German Painting - A Lecture for the Freie Studentenschaft in Berlin Published by S Hirzel, Leipzig 1914
Legends from the artist's life 1 and 2 Edition Bruno Cassirer, Berlin 1918
The Learning of Painting A Handbook 1-3 Edition Bruno Cassirer, Berlin 1920
Self-biography Hirzel, Leipzig 1926 New edition: Renate Hartleb (Hrsg) Self-biography Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-378-00547-5
My early years Claassen, Hamburg 1954 (post edited by Charlotte Berend-Corinth)
Collected Works Published with a foreword by Kerstin Englert, Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin 1920
Königsberg:
Alfred Rohde designed the Lovis-Corinth-Gedächtnissaal in the Unfriedtbau of the Königsberg Castle in 1927/28 With the castle he went under the air raids on Königsberg

Estate:
Corinth's written estate can be viewed in the Deutscher Kunstarchiv in Nuremberg as well as in the archive of the Academy of Arts in Berlin
https://hisour.com/artist/lovis-corinth/