Lot number 2903 - Auction
Studie zum Rückenakt (1910)

LOVIS CORINTH (ATTR.) 1858 Tapiau/East Prussia - 1925 Zandvoort Study of the Back Nude (1910) Oil on canvas, relined on cardboard. 25,5 x 31 cm (F. 48 x 53,5 cm). Illegible remains of the signature in the right left corner, and date '1910'. Verso: on the protective cardboard is a page from the newspaper with the article 'Corinth und der alte Fritz. The Genius of the Great Frederick - A previously unknown work by Lovis Corinth'. Yellowed varnish, horizontal craquelure, edges rubbed and detached from the plate in some places. Frame. There is a copy of a letter from 1930 in which the director of the Strasbourg Museum, Mr Hans Haug, reports that the painting entitled "Nude model, visible up to the shoulders, looking towards a studio window" is very much a study by Lovis Corinth. The letter also mentions an article pasted on the back of the picture. Lovis Corinth, who remained true to the Expressionist principle of merging art and life, rarely chose professional models. Mostly they are his friends or his relatives. In 1904 he married Charlotte Behrend, and from that year onwards the number of his nudes increased considerably. She became his muse, his favourite model. Observations of her everyday life are not only devoted to his iconic works, but also to numerous drawings and studies in which he succeeds in overcoming the artificiality of nude painting and a sense of tension. The oil study presented to us is also characterised by immediacy and intimacy, which the author achieves with minimalist techniques and laconic forms. Literature: The Paintings of Lovis Corinth. Catalogue of works. Munich Bruckmann. 1958; Lovis Corinth the paintings. Catalogue raisonné. Berend-Corinth, Charlotte. Munich Bruckmann 1992. Provenance: Private collection.