Physical Description
Lithograph in black ink on rectangular white paper depicting the interior of an ancient Egyptian throne room. Dominating the center is a slender, animated youthful man with a large nose and short dark hair, wearing leg shackles and a white loin cloth. He is bathed in light and his features are drawn in realistic detail. He is gesticulating and speaking before a statuelike man and woman in ornate Egyptian headdresses seated on a throne on a raised dais. In the left foreground is an ibis; on the right, a nude woman plays a harp. In the left middle ground are 2 featureless men in striped wig covers and skirts, holding the chains of the leg shackles. In the left and right background are columns with geometric patterned capitals framing a dark oblong arched passageway with a dark skinned man standing on the right. The walls and floor have hieroglyphic and geometric details. It is a detailed image with dense hatchwork and shading. The artist’s name is inscribed in the lower right border and the date, c. 1894, is etched in the lower left. The print is affixed to a white mat board with a window frame display with penciled text in the lower left of the window board and in blue ink in the lower right of the mat board.
Dimensions
overall : 17.000 x 23.375 in. (43.18 x 59.373 cm.)
pictorial area : 13.875 x 16.500 in. (35.243 x 41.91 cm.)
Materials
overall : paper, ink, graphite
Signature
front, lower right, pencil : Lovis Corinth
Inscription
front, lower left of window board, upside down, pencil : 423 / Λ07
front, lower right of mat board, blue ink : Or. Rad. von Lovis Corinth
Contributor
Artist:
Lovis Corinth
Subject:
Lovis Corinth
Biography
Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) was a prolific and popular German painter and printmaker, creating works on a variety of subjects, including portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, and allegorical and biblical subject paintings.
He was born Franz Heinrich Louis Corinth on July 21, 1858, in Tapiau, East Prussia, Germany (Gvardeysk, Russia), to Franz Heinrich and Amalie Wilhelmine Opitz Corinth. His family owned a farm and tannery. From 1876-1880, he attended the Konigsberg Art Academy where he specialized in history painting and studied under Otto Gunther. He then went to Munich and joined the class of Ludwig von Lofftz at the Munich Art Academy. From 1882-83, Corinth completed his mandatory military service. From 1884-1887, he enrolled at the Academie Julian in Paris and trained with William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury.
He returned to Germany in 1887 and adopted Lovis as his professional name. His father died on January 10, 1889, and Corinth inherited property and sizeable investments, providing him with financial stability. He moved to Munich and became a founding member of the Munich Secession in 1892 and the Free Association in 1894. Corinth was one of the major proponents of Impressionism in Germany and was part of the first exhibition of the Berlin Secession, a German Impressionism association, in May 1899. Corinth had a one-man exhibition at Paul Cassirer’s gallery in Berlin and moved permanently to that city in 1901. That year, he opened a painting school for women in his studio; he later married one of his students, Charlotte Berend. Their son, Thomas, was born on October 13, 1904, and a daughter, Wilhelmine, on June 13, 1909. By 1910, Corinth’s work was well-known in Germany, through exhibition and reproductions in local papers and art journals, as well as his writings on art. In December 1910, when Max Liebermann was forced to resign as President of the Berlin Secession, Corinth assumed the position.
In December 1911, Corinth suffered a stroke. He was partially paralyzed on his left side and his painting style became more Expressionistic. The Secession was overseen by Paul Cassirer during Corinth’s illness, but in 1915, Corinth’s health improved sufficiently for him to serve as President. In 1917, the Prussian Ministry of Culture awarded him the title of Professor. During a trip to the Netherlands, Corinth fell ill with pneumonia and died on July 17, 1925, age 66, in Zandvoort.
After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, Corinth’s late works were classified as “degenerate art” and featured in the Exhibition of Degenerate Art [Entartete Kunst] held in Munich in 1937. Almost three hundred of Corinth’s works were confiscated from German museums for the exhibition; seven were highlighted in the “inadequate craftsmanship and artistry” category. In 1939, the Nazi regime sold several of his confiscated works at auction in Lucerne, Switzerland.
