Corinth, Lovis

born July 21, 1858, Tapiau, East Prussia

died July 12, 1925, Zandvoort, Neth.

German painter and graphic artist.

He trained in Paris with the painter William Bouguereau. In 1902 he settled in Berlin and, with Max Liebermann, became a leading exponent of Impressionism in Germany. After recovering from a stroke in 1911, his style became much looser and more powerfully Expressionist. He was best known for his landscapes and portraits, including numerous powerfully expressive self-portraits, and he produced many etchings and lithographs (e.g., Apocalypse, 1921).

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▪ German painter

born July 21, 1858, Tapiau, East Prussia [now Gvardeysk, Russia]

died July 12, 1925, Zandvoort, Netherlands

 German painter known for his dramatic figurative and landscape paintings.

      Corinth underwent a lengthy period of academic artistic training that began in 1876, when he enrolled at the Academy of Königsberg. He studied in Munich from 1880 to 1884, where he was schooled in a Realist approach that emphasized close observation of the human figure. During a three-month stay in Antwerp in 1884, he was influenced by the vitality in the painting of Peter Paul Rubens (Rubens, Peter Paul). Later that year, Corinth moved to Paris and became a student at the Académie Julian, where he honed his draftsmanship under the tutelage of William-Adolphe Bouguereau (Bouguereau, William-Adolphe). Corinth was in Paris when the influential Impressionist (Impressionism) artists worked and exhibited there, but he claimed to have been entirely unaware of their work.

      Disappointed by his lack of acceptance within the Parisian art world, Corinth returned to Germany in 1887. Soon after, he became involved in the Secession movement, an artists' association formed by the painter Max Liebermann (Liebermann, Max) as a protest against the academic schools in Berlin and Munich.

      After settling in Berlin in 1901, Corinth's mature work frequently involved dramatic treatments of religious, mythological, and historical subjects, rendered with loose brush work and strong colours that have often been described as Expressionist (Expressionism). Despite such seeming similarities, Corinth opposed the rise of Expressionism by excluding its artists from Secession exhibitions. He later grew to accept Expressionism's merits, however, and embraced its intensely emotional approach in his own work. In 1911 Corinth suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed. Subsequently, his brushwork became more vigorous, and the work done after 1911 is often considered his best.

      Though best known for his landscapes of the Walchensee area of Bavaria and for his portraits, Corinth also painted religious scenes, often violent ones such as the Golgotha altarpiece (1909–11). He also made etchings and lithographs, such as Apocalypse (1921), that, more so than his paintings, reveal his capacity for Expressionist power.

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