From the start of his career, Lovis Corinth was a great admirer of the paintings of Rembrandt, and like him he painted a series of self-portraits reflecting changes in his life. This penultimate article in the series to commemorate his death a century ago looks at a selection of those. These should cast light on whether his style changed dramatically over the course of his career, and what effects his stroke at the end of 1911 may have had on that style.

His earliest self-portrait is typical of his initial detailed realist style, although he didn’t show the meticulous detail in his hair or beard, for instance, that was more popular earlier in the nineteenth century.

By his later years in Munich, the skin of his face has become more painterly, and non-flesh surfaces such as his shirt and the landscape background, as well as the skull, have obviously visible brushstrokes. A simple self-portrait was also not enough: he posed beside a skeleton, drawing the comparison between his living, fleshy face, and the fleshless skull next to it.

His move from Munich, where he already had a reputation for drinking and social life, to Berlin brought him love and inspiration from his fiancée then wife Charlotte Berend, but intensified his work, social life, and drinking. His depiction of flesh has a rougher facture, and most of the passages in this work appear to have been sketched in quickly.

These changes are even more evident in this wild and ribald double portrait with his wife, posing appropriately as Bacchantes. His chest and left arm now have stark dark brushstrokes giving the flesh a texture rather than form.

Before his stroke, and the outbreak of the First World War, he posed as the standard-bearer to a mediaeval knight, his head held high with pride for Prussia. The flesh of his face now appears rough-hewn, particularly over surfaces that would normally be shown smooth and blended, such as the forehead. Bright patches on the suit of armour are shown with coarse daubs of white paint.

After his stroke, and just as the First World War was about to start, there has been little roughening in his facture. His face, though, looks more worried, and his previous pride appears to have been quashed.

By the end of the war, when he was 60, he had aged markedly, with receding hair and gaunt cheeks. Although his face and hand are as sketchy as before, his hair and left ear have been rendered more roughly still.

When he was out in the country sun at the family’s chalet by Walchensee, he painted his clothing and the landscape extremely roughly. He looks his years, but if anything appears more healthy and relaxed than when he was confined to Berlin.

His last self-portrait shows age catching up with him, and has even rougher facture. His forehead is now a field of daubs of different colours, applied coarsely. His hair consists of gestural marks seemingly made in haste.

Although there’s a clear trend towards a rough facture over the years, I can’t see any particular watershed either following his stroke or at another time that suggests sudden change. Can you?

References

Wikipedia.

Lemoine S et al. (2008) Lovis Corinth, Musée d’Orsay & RMN. ISBN 978 2 711 85400 4. (In French.)