Large Still Life with Figure

Lovis Corinth had two careers, separated by a stroke. Before 1911 he was a leading figure of the Berlin Secession, painting robust nudes, mythological scenes and portraits with a confident academic-trained hand. The stroke left his left side weakened and his drawing unsteady, and he had to relearn how to work. What followed is what he is now remembered for. The late paintings are raw, scraped and urgent, with colour applied in broken strokes that seem barely held together. The Walchensee landscapes, painted from his house in Bavaria over his final years, are the clearest example. He returned to the same lake again and again as the handling grew looser. Critics have argued ever since about whether the late style was a breakthrough or a symptom. Corinth himself kept working at pace until his death in 1925, producing self-portraits each year on his birthday that track the change without flattery.