Modern Age
Lovis Corinth (1858–1925)
German Impressionism painter.
Lovis Corinth was born in East Prussia in 1858 and emerged as one of the most dynamic painters bridging German Impressionism and Expressionism. After academic training in Königsberg, Munich, and Paris under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, he developed a vigorous painterly style that combined naturalistic observation with increasingly bold, expressive brushwork. In 1901 he married the painter Charlotte Berend, who became his most frequent model and artistic partner. Establishing himself in Berlin, Corinth gained recognition for ambitious historical and mythological compositions, intimate portraits, still lifes, and nudes rendered with unflinching physicality.
In 1911, a severe stroke nearly ended his career, but after painstaking recovery, Corinth's work underwent a profound transformation. His post-stroke paintings grew more emotionally intense and formally adventurous, with looser, more gestural handling and heightened color that anticipated Expressionist developments. During summers at the Walchensee in Bavaria from 1918 onward, he produced a celebrated series of landscape paintings that combined atmospheric observation with near-abstract vigor. These late works reveal an artist working with raw urgency, confronting mortality, nature's power, and the act of painting itself with unprecedented directness.
Corinth's prolific output encompassed oil paintings, watercolors, prints, and drawings. He served as president of the Berlin Secession from 1915 to 1925, championing modern art while maintaining connections to Old Master traditions. His self-portraits, created almost annually throughout his career, form a remarkable chronicle of aging, illness, and resilience. Corinth died in 1925 in Zandvoort, Netherlands, leaving behind a body of work that demonstrates the expressive potential of paint itself—its materiality, gesture, and capacity to embody both sensuality and existential weight.
The words the record keeps using: vigorous, earthy, confrontational, vital, uncompromising, expressive, robust, honest.
At a glance
- Lived 1858–1925
- Origin German
- Worked in Paris, Munich
- Era Modern Age
- Movements Impressionism, Realism
- Mediums Oil on canvas, Engraving and etching, Watercolor
- Techniques Chiaroscuro, Impasto, Alla prima (wet-in-wet), En plein air painting, Directional impasto
Works in the archive
- Self-Portrait with Skeleton, 1896 (Lenbachhaus, Munich)
Corinth confronts the viewer while gesturing toward a grinning skeleton in a composition that combines memento mori tradition with unflinching self-examination. The artist appears robust and vital in contrast to the… - Portrait of Charlotte Berend, 1902 (Hamburger Kunsthalle)
This portrait of Charlotte Berend, painted shortly after their marriage, shows Corinth's wife and fellow artist in a moment of intimate contemplation. Charlotte became Corinth's most important model and creative… - The Blinded Samson, 1912 (Städel Museum, Frankfurt)
Painted shortly after Corinth's own debilitating stroke, this brutal depiction of Samson being blinded carries intensely personal resonance. The tortured figure writhes in agony while Philistine soldiers restrain him,… - Ecce Homo, 1913 (Kunstmuseum Basel)
This powerful religious painting depicts Christ presented to the crowd by Pontius Pilate, rendered with Corinth's characteristic expressive intensity. The composition emphasizes Christ's suffering and humanity,… - Walchensee Panorama, View from the Pulpit, 1924 (Private collection)
One of Corinth's magnificent late Walchensee landscapes, painted from an elevated viewpoint overlooking the Bavarian alpine lake. The painting vibrates with energetic brushwork that borders on abstraction, capturing…
What was said
True painting must be rooted in direct observation of nature and life, not in abstract theories or idealized conventions. The artist's task is to capture the essential character of the subject through honest, vigorous handling that respects both the thing seen and the act of seeing.
After his stroke in 1911, Corinth expressed that his work had become more subjective and emotionally direct. He felt that confronting his own mortality and physical limitations freed him to paint with greater urgency and expressive force, particularly in his Walchensee landscapes.
Corinth believed that paint should assert its own material presence, that brushstrokes should remain visible as evidence of the artist's physical engagement with the canvas. He saw painting as a bodily act that embodied the artist's vitality and struggle.
Lineage
Passed on to Max Beckmann
What would Lovis make of your idea?
The Artiquity Studio makes a new picture in this hand's manner from a few words or a photograph — grounded in the technique, palette and subjects recorded above, and always credited "after Lovis Corinth", never passed off as a found work. Open the Studio with Lovis · Keep a life moment the way Lovis would · Pictures made after Lovis