CC BY 4.0
Lovis Corinth
1924
About the object
Over the years Gabriele Rauschning has acquired 18 prints by Lovis Corinth (1858-1925). Perhaps it was Corinth's origin in East Prussia, which for the collector was connected with her own biography and her childhood years in Pomerania, or perhaps it was the wide range of his graphic work that attracted Gabriele Rauschning to Lovis Corinth.
On the one hand, Corinth is regarded as a representative of German Impressionism, but on the other hand also as a forerunner of Expressionism, which has to do with his impulsive and passionately presented painting and drawing, which expresses itself in an exaggeration of forms and an emotional expressiveness.
As an artist, Corinth was a true jack-of-all-trades: he created about a thousand paintings, he painted in watercolours and drew, and he also left behind a large oeuvre of prints comprising about a thousand sheets. The techniques of etching and drypoint, soft ground etching (vernis mou) as well as black-and-white and colour lithography were in the foreground for him. He produced single sheets, but also distributed his prints in the form of portfolios and series.
His graphic oeuvre is broad in terms of motifs, which is also evident in Gabriele Rauschning's collection: from literary figure paintings with stories from Greek and Roman mythology (cf. no. 47 Alexander and Diogenes) and the Bible, especially the Passion of Christ (no. 5 Crucifixion), portraits, including several self-portraits (nos. 21, 22) and nudes (cf. Kammerspiel I), as well as still lifes, landscapes and scenes from everyday life (no. 23 Hotel am Walchensee, no. 24 Kohlehafen). His prints often appear sketchy or allow the spontaneous idea, the study of nature and the unfinished to come to the fore. This is also the case in the city view "Basel" from 1924, depicting the middle Rhine bridge, which was built in 1905 to replace a previous bridge from the Middle Ages.
Its strong stone pillars with the wide arches and the so-called Käppelijoch, the small Gothic-style bridge chapel in the middle of the bridge, can be seen in sketchy lines. In 1924, one year before his death, Corinth was honoured with a large exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich. It can be assumed that the artist also travelled to Basel in this context and sketched the bridge depiction here; typical of a travel memory, he then also noted "Basel" in the plate. According to the catalogue raisonné this is a rare print of which only four exist.
His graphic oeuvre is broad in terms of motifs, which is also evident in Gabriele Rauschning's collection: from literary figure paintings with stories from Greek and Roman mythology (cf. no. 47 Alexander and Diogenes) and the Bible, especially the Passion of Christ (no. 5 Crucifixion), portraits, including several self-portraits (nos. 21, 22) and nudes (cf. Kammerspiel I), as well as still lifes, landscapes and scenes from everyday life (no. 23 Hotel am Walchensee, no. 24 Kohlehafen). His prints often appear sketchy or allow the spontaneous idea, the study of nature and the unfinished to come to the fore. This is also the case in the city view "Basel" from 1924, depicting the middle Rhine bridge, which was built in 1905 to replace a previous bridge from the Middle Ages.
Its strong stone pillars with the wide arches and the so-called Käppelijoch, the small Gothic-style bridge chapel in the middle of the bridge, can be seen in sketchy lines. In 1924, one year before his death, Corinth was honoured with a large exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich. It can be assumed that the artist also travelled to Basel in this context and sketched the bridge depiction here; typical of a travel memory, he then also noted "Basel" in the plate. According to the catalogue raisonné this is a rare print of which only four exist.
(Text: Verena Faber)
References
- Müller, Heinrich ; Corinth, Lovis: Die späte Graphik von Lovis Corinth. 1913 - 1925 = Lovis Corinth, the late graphic work. , S. 104 S., [72] Bl., 859.