Lovis Corinth

German

61 paintings in our database

Corinth is one of the three major German Impressionists alongside Liebermann and Slevogt, and his post-stroke work makes him a pivotal figure between Impressionism and Expressionism.

Biography

Lovis Corinth (1858–1925) was a German painter who was one of the dominant figures of German Impressionism and whose late work, produced after a stroke in 1911, achieved an expressionistic intensity that has placed him among the pivotal figures in the transition from nineteenth to twentieth-century German art. Born in Tapiau, East Prussia, he trained at the Königsberg Academy before moving to Munich and then to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian under William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. His early works — painted in Paris between 1884 and 1887 — show nude studies and portraits of considerable technical assurance. Returning to Germany, he settled in Munich and developed his robust, full-blooded approach to figure painting: nudes, mythological subjects, portraits, and large-scale religious and allegorical compositions. In 1901 he moved to Berlin, where he became associated with the Berlin Secession and later served as its president. The stroke of 1911 affected the left side of his body but paradoxically liberated his handling — his late self-portraits, landscape studies at Walchensee, and figure paintings became increasingly gestural, colour-saturated, and emotionally raw, pointing directly toward Expressionism.

Artistic Style

Corinth's style before 1911 is vigorous, sensual, and technically commanding — a German response to the bravura painterly tradition of Rubens, Hals, and the Munich academic school. His palette is rich and warm, his brushwork bold and physical, his figures full of carnal energy. His post-stroke work is more agitated and expressionistic: colours become more intense, forms more dissolved, the psychological temperature higher. The late self-portraits are among the most harrowing in modern art.

Historical Significance

Corinth is one of the three major German Impressionists alongside Liebermann and Slevogt, and his post-stroke work makes him a pivotal figure between Impressionism and Expressionism. His presidency of the Berlin Secession placed him at the centre of German art's institutional modernisation. His influence on twentieth-century German painting was considerable.

Things You Might Not Know

•Corinth suffered a severe stroke in 1911 at age 43 that paralysed his right side. He relearned to paint with his left hand and, remarkably, his post-stroke work became more expressive and gestural — many critics consider it superior to his pre-stroke painting.
•He was a central figure in the Berlin Secession and became its president in 1915, but his leadership was marked by bitter internal disputes that eventually led to a splinter group.
•His late self-portraits, painted after the stroke, are among the most psychologically raw in German art — he depicted himself ageing, weakened, and confronting mortality with unflinching directness.
•Corinth was a prolific writer as well as painter, publishing technical manuals on painting technique that were used in German art schools.
•Despite his association with German Expressionism's aftermath, Corinth himself rejected the label and considered himself a direct heir of Rubens and Rembrandt's painterly tradition.

Influences & Legacy

Shaped By

Peter Paul Rubens — Corinth's fleshy, vigorous figure painting and painterly exuberance have their roots in Rubens's Baroque tradition
Rembrandt van Rijn — his later, more expressive work increasingly echoes Rembrandt's emotional depth and tonal drama
Franz von Lenbach — the Munich portrait tradition Corinth inherited and transformed
Max Liebermann — the leading German Impressionist whose Berlin Secession Corinth joined; their shared commitment to painterly directness over academic finish aligned them

Went On to Influence

Max Beckmann — Corinth's post-stroke expressionism was a direct precursor to Beckmann's own emotional figuration
German Expressionism broadly — Corinth's late work bridged Impressionism and Expressionism, making him a transitional figure the younger generation looked back to