Q52718109

This 1879 cardboard work held at the Hamburger Kunsthalle represents one of the earliest surviving Corinth pieces in a major German museum collection. The Hamburger Kunsthalle has historically maintained one of Germany's most comprehensive holdings of nineteenth-century German painting, and the inclusion of a juvenile Corinth study speaks to the institution's long-standing interest in documenting the full development of significant German artists. Painted at twenty or twenty-one, this cardboard work would have been made in Königsberg before Corinth's academic training, representing his provincial self-directed practice. The survival of such an early work in a major museum is somewhat unusual — most student and pre-student work perished or was discarded — making this a valuable document of his origins.

Cardboard supports in late-nineteenth-century use were typically prepared with a brief sizing or ground to limit oil absorption, though young artists working outside academic supervision might use them unprepared. An early Corinth on cardboard would show paint that has sunk somewhat into the board's surface in thinner areas, producing a characteristic matte, slightly lean finish. Thicker marks would have dried more slowly and may show some cracking.