Lovis Corinth was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.
20 Facts About Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth was initially antagonistic towards the expressionist movement, but after a stroke in 1911 his style loosened and took on many expressionistic qualities.
Lovis Corinth was born Franz Heinrich Louis on 21 July 1858 in Tapiau, in the Province of Prussia in the Kingdom of Prussia.
Lovis Corinth then traveled to Antwerp, where he greatly admired the paintings of Rubens, and then in October 1884 to Paris where he studied under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Academie Julian.
Lovis Corinth concentrated especially on improving his drawing skills, and made the female nude his frequent subject.
Lovis Corinth was disappointed in his repeated failure to win a medal at the Salon, and returned to Konigsberg in 1888 when he adopted the name "Lovis Corinth".
In 1891, Lovis Corinth returned to Munich, but in 1892 he abandoned the Munich Academy and joined the Munich Secession.
Lovis Corinth moved to Berlin in 1900, and had a one-man exhibition at a gallery owned by Paul Cassirer.
Lovis Corinth had a profound influence on him, and family life became a major theme in his art.
Lovis Corinth published numerous essays on art history, and in 1908 published Das Erlernen der Malerei.
Lovis Corinth's disability inspired in the artist an intense interest in the simple, intimate things of daily life.
Lovis Corinth painted numerous self-portraits, and made a habit of painting one every year on his birthday as a means of self-examination.
Not all of Lovis Corinth's works were appreciated in his lifetime: upon learning of his death, Danish critic Georg Brandes wrote in a letter to his secretary that it was Lovis Corinth's "punishment for such a wretched portrait of myself".
On 15 March 1921 Lovis Corinth received an honorary doctorate from the University of Konigsberg.
Lovis Corinth explored every print technique except aquatint; he favored drypoint and lithography.
Lovis Corinth created his first etching in 1891 and his first lithograph in 1894.
Lovis Corinth experimented with the woodcut medium but made only 12 woodcuts, all of them between 1919 and 1924.
Lovis Corinth was quite prolific, and in the last 15 years of his life he produced more than 900 graphic works, including 60 self-portraits.
The house where Lovis Corinth was born is still in the town of Tapiau, which is called Gvardeysk, and located in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.
In 1910 Lovis Corinth had donated the painting Golgatha for the altar of the church of his birthplace, Tapiau.