Walchensee, Silverway 1923
oil on canvas
23.75" x 35.125" (60.3 x 89.2 cm)

1923. Lovis Corinth (1858-1925). Saint Louis Art Musuem.

Lovis Corinth was one of the artists I had in mind when I mentioned in Saturday, July 29th's post that Resevoir, New Mexico owed more to expressionist and abstract art than to the actual scene.

Here is a brief biography of Corinth taken from Wikipedia:

Corinth was born in Tapiau, East Prussia. He studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Secession group, and later succeeded Max Liebermann as president. His early work was naturalistic in approach. Corinth was antagonistic toward the expressionist movement, although after a stroke in 1911 his style loosened and took on many expressionistic qualities. His colors became more vibrant, and he created portraits and landscapes of extraordinary vitality and power.

Corinth showed an early talent for drawing and attended the Munich Academy in 1880, which rivaled Paris as the avant-garde art center in Europe at the time. He later traveled to Paris where he studied under William-Adolphe Bouguereau at the Acadèmie Julian. In 1891, Corinth returned to Munich, but in 1892 he abandoned the Munich Academy and joined the very first Secession. In 1894, he joined the Free Association, and in 1899 he exhibited in an exhibition organized by the Berlin Secession. These nine Munich years were not his most productive and he was perhaps better known for his ability to drink large amounts of red wine and champagne.

In 1900 he moved to Berlin where he had a one-man exhibition at a famous 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 during this time.

In 1911, he suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed on his left side. With the help of his wife, a year later he was back to work with his right hand. It was during this time that landscapes became a significant part of his oeuvre. From 1915-1925, he was elected President of the Berlin Secession. In 1925, he traveled to the Netherlands to look at his favorite Dutch masters, where he caught pneumonia and died in Zandvoort.

Corinth was quite prolific and in the last fifteen years of his life, he produced more than 900 graphic works including 60 self-portraits. The landscapes he created between 1919 and 1925 are perhaps the most desirable images of his entire oeuvre.

Corinth is not as well known as many of his contemporaries. He should be better known; he was an outstanding artist.

One of Corinth's nudes is posted below.