Lotte Roll

Lotte Roll (1902) belongs to the sequence of portraits of women from Corinth's immediate social and professional circle that he produced in the early 1900s in his Berlin studio. The sitter's name connects her to the lively world of Berlin artistic and theatrical society that Corinth entered after moving from Munich. These intimate female portraits show Corinth refining his ability to capture personality through pose and expression while maintaining the vigorous brushwork that distinguished him from more academic portrait painters of the period. The Alte Nationalgalerie's holding of this work places it within a permanent record of what made Berlin's cultural scene so distinctive around 1900.

Warm golden light typical of Corinth's Berlin studio work bathes the composition, with the face modelled through contrasts of illuminated and shadowed areas. Brushwork in the hair and clothing is free and gestural; in the face it becomes more observational, registering the sitter's features with directness. The paint surface is animated throughout, giving the image an immediacy that separates it from formal commissioned portraiture.