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WORLD'S BEST ART
For a list of the best examples of
Fine Art Painting, by the
world's top artists, see below:
Greatest Paintings Ever
Oils, watercolours, mixed
media from 1300-present.
WHAT IS ART?
For an explanation of the
aesthetic issues surrounding
the creative visual arts, see:
Art Definition, Meaning
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Berlin Impressionism
In 1900 he moved to Berlin in search of
work, and enjoyed his first one-man art exhibition at Paul Cassirer's
gallery. Eighteen months later, Corinth opened a painting school for women
students, one of whom (Charlotte Berend) became his youthful wife and
muse. A spiritual soulmate as well as the mother of his two children,
she exerted a significant influence on his art. Meantime, he also joined
the Berlin Sezession movement, and over the next decade, he - along
with Max Liebermann (1847-1935) and Max Slevogt (1868-1932)
- became recognized as one of the leading Impressionist
painters in Germany. Nonetheless, Corinth retained a strong connection
with realism, and his main
inspiration remained that of Rembrandt
rather than that of modern French painters.
Expressionism
Tragically, in 1911, Corinth suffered a
stroke, after which - with the help of his wife - he turned to a looser,
more expressionist style of painting. His colour palette became more vibrant
and he produced a number of Biblical scenes, landscapes and portrait paintings
of enormous vitality and power. In 1913, the Berlin Sezession awarded
him a retrospective, showcasing over 200 of his oil paintings. In 1915,
he was elected President of the Sezession; in 1917 the Berlin Academy
of Fine Art awarded him a Professorship; and in 1921 he received an honorary
doctorate from the University of Konigsberg. In 1924 he was elected an
honorary member of the Munich Academy.
Works
Famous examples of modern
art by Lovis Corinth include: Nude Girl (1886, Minneapolis
Institute of Arts); Self-Portrait with Skeleton (1896, Stadtische
Galerie, Lenbachhaus); The Artist and His Family (1909, Niedersachsisches
Landesmuseum Hanover); Embracing (1911, Courtauld Institute of
Art, London); Samson Blinded (1912, Staatliche Museum, Berlin);
his Walchensee series of landscape painting (1915–25); Magdalen
with Pearls in her Hair (1919, Tate, London); Self-Portrait with
Straw Hat (1923, Kunstmuseum, Basel); and Ecce Homo (1925,
Neue Pinakothek, Munich). Corinth also excelled in printmaking.
Familiar with almost every print technique except aquatint, he preferred
working with drypoint, lithography
and the occasional woodcuts. In all, he produced well over 1,000 works
of graphic art. Paintings and prints by Lovis Corinth can be seen in the
best art museums throughout the German-speaking world, including the Lovis
Corinth Museum in Tapiau.
Corinth died of pneumonia while on a trip
to Amsterdam in 1925 to see works by the great Dutch Realists, Rembrandt
and Frans Hals (1582-1666). In 1937, his painting was condemned by the
Nazis as Degenerate Art
(Entartete Kunst) and banned.
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