Self portrait with model

Self-Portrait with Model (1903), in the Kunsthaus Zürich, places Corinth within the long tradition of artist-and-model paintings that make the act of painting itself a subject. The self-portrait-with-model format invites viewers to contemplate the power dynamics of studio practice: who looks, who is looked at, what the act of artistic attention means for both parties. Corinth's treatment is characteristically direct rather than allegorically coded; he presents the studio situation as a frank fact rather than a mythologised encounter. The Kunsthaus Zürich's holding of this work gave Swiss audiences a prime example of the kind of uninhibited studio practice that was making Berlin's art scene internationally significant in these years.

The composition divides attention between the artist's face and the model's figure, using spatial arrangement to articulate their complementary roles. Corinth's self-portrait passages are characteristically vigorous—paint applied with searching, directional marks—while the model may be handled with a different quality of attention appropriate to her role as observed subject. The paint surface is rich and varied throughout.