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German Artists' Writings in the XX Century - 3
Lovis Corinth
Autobiographic Writings. Part One
(Review by Francesco Mazzaferro)
[Original version: October 2014 - New version: April 2019]
Lovis Corinth: a modern painter, after all
Memoirs of the Allotria circle
[3] Corinth, Lovis - Legenden aus dem Kunstlerleben, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1909, pp. 138. The front-cover shows an original sketch by Corinth dated 1908, but the book was printed in 1909.
[Original version: October 2014 - New version: April 2019]
 |
| Fig. 1) The cover page of the complete writings by Lovis Corinth, published by Gurlitt in 1920 |
One of the most famous paintings of Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) - his penultimate painting - is Ecce Homo (1925). Despite some similitude, it is not a product of Lucian Freud or Francis Bacon. His real name was Franz Heinrich Louis Corinth; in
German the surname is pronounced [Korí:nt], as Germans pronounce the name of
the Greek city Corinth too. The picture is from 1925, the year of the death of
the painter at 67 years. He finished the picture only three months before
passing away, due to a pneumonia, in the Netherlands. He worked to this
painting for 10 years. It was produced for the National Gallery in Berlin,
whose director Ludwig Justi was one of the main promoters of modern art in
Germany. The Nazis seized the painting and exhibited it at the exhibition of
1937, on the so-called “Degenerate Art” (Entartete
Kunst). They wanted to show that the degeneration of art was a real illness
that could hit not only the youngest painters, but also those of the previous
generation. They even gave a medical explanation of it: even if it is true that
Corinth had suffered a stroke in 1911, they invented a second stroke out of
whole cloth and attributed to this circumstance the painter’s change of style
in an ”Expressionist” sense [1] (Corinth would have never accepted this
definition). Many works were destroyed. The Ecce
homo instead was saved, because the Nazis sold it abroad to earn foreign
exchange and gold. It is now in the Kunstmuseum
Basel. If you want to
have another proof of how Corinth has influenced us, please compare his Red Christ of 1923 and the famous images of
Mel Gibson's film about the Passion of
Christ.
In chronological
terms, Corinth worked as a painter for 25 years in the nineteenth century and
for 25 years in the twentieth century. With Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt is
one of the three major German impressionists, a nineteenth-century categorisation
in itself. Yet there are at least five reasons to include him in a series on
the history of art sources of twentieth-century Germany.
First, the date
of publication of the sources of the history of art that I have consulted, in
chronological order: (a) The manual Learning painting (Das Erlernen der Malerei [2]), 1909; (b) The Legends of the life of an artist (Legenden aus dem Künsterleben [3]) in the same year; (c) The Life of Walter Leistikow (Das Leben Walter
Leistikow [4]) of 1910 (these three books were published by Bruno and Paul Cassirer, the cousins who were the heart of the art culture of Berlin in
those years); (d) the collection of the writings (Schriften [5]), appeared in 1920 and printed by another great
collector and gallery owner in Berlin, Fritz Gurlitt (e); the Autobiography (Selbstbiographie [6]) printed a year after his death by his
wife (1926) and (f) the diary of his wife Charlotte Berend-Corinth (My Life
with Lovis Corinth - Mein Leben mit Lovis
Corinth [7]), also a painter , published in 1947. It is true that there is
some evidence he tried – in vain – to write the autobiography already in 1892.
In substance, however, if the pictorial work is at the turn of the century, the
literary work and theoretical reflection are all in the first quarter of the
twentieth century. It is worth noting that almost all literary texts are
available on the internet at no cost, in German [8].
Second, the
painting style of Corinth matured extraordinarily in his last fifteen years. He
himself realised that on the one hand the disease had diminished his physical strength, but on the other one had increased his creative energy. Plagued by
depression, at a permanent risk of suicide, semi-paralyzed, Corinth discovers a
new style of painting, often reaching the limit of informal art, without ever
crossing the limit of the non-figurative. This is the period of the Walchensee, the lake where he has a
country cottage, with landscapes that seem to become abstract in the pictures.
Third, if the Autobiography of Corinth - at least in
my opinion – never reached the literary quality to which the painter aspired,
it still contains an important testimony on the years of severe crisis after
the German defeat of World War I: the heart of Corinth is that of a
conservative and nationalist Prussian, who sees his value system wiped out by
war and by the events of the Weimar Republic. Corinth is an orphan of the
emperor; however, he was able to portray the first social democratic president
of the Weimar Republic, Friedrich Ebert, in 1924, and drew a positive
impression of him. He would have liked to portray Hindenburg, but he did not
have a chance. Despite being entirely contrary to his ideas, he published a
lithograph portrait of Karl Liebknecht in 1920. The correspondence published by
the son explains what happened: Corinth wrote to Liebknecht in 1918 (in full
revolutionary phase) asking whether he could portray him. In March 1919 the
widow Sophie Liebknecht sent him some photographs of her husband leading
demonstrations in previous years, informs him that the prison has also weakened
his physiognomy and informs him that she will send him a copy of the death mask
(Liebknecht was killed, along with Rosa Luxembourg, by the anti-riot troops in
mysterious circumstances on 15th January 1919). Corinth produces a lithography on
that basis [9]. These are terrible years: the hyper-inflation destroys wealth, the
revolutionary upheavals threaten social peace, and the prophecy of the disaster
is acute. As we shall see, the paradoxical effect is to increase the customers’
demand for paintings, as a safe haven. Corinth - who was an already affluent person - thanks to his father's legacy - has a remarkable economic success
exactly at the time the German economy collapsed.
Fourth, the
terms of Corinth’s aesthetic discussion are those of the entire German art of
the first three decades of the century, before the advent of Nazism: the
love-hate relationship with the French art (a source of inspiration, but also
the art of the enemy), the desire to assert a modern national art, the mockery suffered
by the general public, the guerrilla among artists. For instance, to understand
Nolde (his arch enemy, although he was also the sponsor of a modern German
national art, as opposed to the French one), it is best to read Corinth, in the
passage where he describes the public clash which he had with him to control
the Berlin Secession, and the satisfaction to have been able to eject him from
the Secession (Corinth never mentions Nolde by name, speaks of him as "an
individual" and as the "person in question" [10]). The very
severe clash will cost Corinth peace and health and will radicalize Nolde in
his battle against Impressionism.
I should like to
warn you, however: if you had asked Corinth whether he was fully aware of his
own modernity, he probably would have answered in a blurred or even negative
way. He had many styles, but it was always characterized by a figurative
painting language and classical compositions. If, therefore, Corinth was one of
the fathers of modern German, it was almost against his will.
As the author of
memoirs and writer on art, he was uneven and messy, drafting writings (the Legends) without an internal consistency
and ending the Autobiography as a
disorderly text, as the sum of disparate parts. His limits must therefore be
always kept in mind.
The Legends of 1908
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| Fig. 2) Lovis Corinth, Legends of the life of an artist, with the original cover by the artist, published by Bruno Cassirer in 1909 |
The Legends of 1908 are a really
surprising work, for the better or for the worse. We know from the
correspondence of Corinth, published by his son Thomas in 1979, that the
original title was to be "Erlebtes
und Erlogenes" or "Lived and lied", even if the contract
with Cassirer also included the final version of the title as an alternative
[11]. Also from him we learn of the existence of numerous preparatory writings,
as well as many pages that were eventually not included in the original text,
but have remained among the papers.
The work is
composed of six writings. The first is a 67-page autobiographical account entitled
"Aus meinem Leben" (From my
life), where we see Corinth telling stories in reality from his own life, under
the pseudonym of Henrich Stiemer. Then there are three critical essays on
painters of the Munich: first of all Carl Strathmann and Thomas Theodor Heine,
two of the artists who joined in Corinth when he created the "Freie Vereinigung" (Free
Association) in Munich, an alternative group of painters. The creation of the Free association led to his expulsion
from the Munich Secession. The following third piece of criticism is on the
designer and caricaturist Olaf Gulkbrasson. The Legends are concluded by two writings of memoirs: "Verschwörung" (Conspiracy) and
"Erinnerungen an den Allotria-Kreis"
(Memories of the Allotria circles), the last named after Allotria, the meeting
place of artists in Munich.
A
non-homogeneous text, then, but it would be a mistake to underestimate it, because
it is the result of a deliberate aesthetic choice [12]. We must not forget that
we are in the years of symbolism, and every picture or style element has a
precise meaning [13].
This is the
case, for example, in the cover page itself, which displays the god Pan
designed by the painter. The book is published by Bruno Cassirer, a cousin of
Paul Cassirer, the promoter of the Berlin Secession. In those years Paul was
creating his own art publishing house in Berlin (called Pan-Presse, the Pan Press, which opened in 1910). The first book of
the Pan-Presse will be the manual Learning painting, precisely by Corinth. For the types of
Pan-Presse were published also the Life
of Walter Leistikow and two series of lithographs by Corinth. In the same
years were also published by the Pan-Presse writings and lithographs by the
other German impressionists Slevogt and Beckmann [14].
"Pan-Magazine
of Art and Culture" had been the leading magazine of the Jugendstil and German symbolism between
1895 and 1900, one generation before, with contributions from all the artists
who played a role in the artistic choices of Corinth before his stay in Berlin
in 1900. In 1910, Paul Cassirer restarts its publication: around the new
edition the intelligentsia in Berlin will gather until 1915 [15].
From my life
As already
mentioned, Aus meinem Leben (From my
life), the first and longest writing of the Legends
is an autobiographical tale, and therefore belongs to an intermediary literary
genre between novel and autobiography. On the one hand, it has many aspects of
literary fiction and invented story, and the style is that of literary
narrative. On the other hand, it is clearly inspired by the artist's life, and
anticipates many pages of the Autobiography.
Probably, the drafting of an autobiographical tale in 1908 is justified by
the fact that Corinth celebrated 50 years. It can be interpreted as a fictitious
autobiographical text, although it was written to look like as similar as
possible to reality. In part, it is without any doubt a literary trompe-l'oeil,
a baroque exercise, a literary provocation.
The choice of an
autobiographical novel - instead of a biography - is typical of that era. Think
of the cultural references of Corinth in those years: Impressionism and Symbolism.
Impressionism means recalling nature (and therefore of the facts of life), while
symbolism implies taking distance from it. In literary terms, it is the
interplay between fiction and reality. "From my life" - as mentioned - is from 1908. The same year is
also published the autobiographical novel of the German symbolist Detlev von
Liliencron, Leben und Lüge (Life and
lie) [16], while it is from 1910 the autobiographical novel by Rainer Maria Rilke
entitled Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte
Laurids Brigge [17] (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge). Rilke is
deeply connected to the same group of Corinth: his Maecenas is Eva Cassirer
(another cousin of Paul and Bruno; that of the Cassirers was one of the great
reference families of German culture, think of the philosopher Ernst Cassirer,
another younger cousin). We are therefore at the centre of German cultural life
in those years.
We are also at
the starting phase of Corinth’s success. He is now firmly embedded in the
Berlin Secession, of which he will take the direction over the next three years.
Thus, Corinth wants to talk to the large public about his own personality, but
not with a pure account of events. Better to draft a piece of literature,
albeit autobiographical, more in line with the rejection of realism, and with
the idea of a life lived in accordance with aesthetic ideals. The theme of
memory is therefore embraced with those of dream, regret, desire, and will.
Instead of narrating the events, it is preferred to tell about the emotions.
Reading the Legends thus reveals in many
ways the true Corinth, that of the creation of total art (Gesamtkunst), who mixes painting, writing and illustration, and also
helps to identify the major themes of his artistic creation in Berlin in 1908.
These are the years of the Belle Époque
for Berlin, in his final season before the war and the crisis of the Weimar
Republic. Remembering the past, in 1908 - before the carnage of war and in the
midst of forty years of peace - still revealed elements of innocence, even if
the wind of nationalism already blows very strongly.
"Aus meinem Leben" (From my life)
tells of the youth of Heinrich Stiemer (the pseudonym for Lovis Corinth), and
focuses on two aspects only: the family life in Germany and the stay in the Académie
Julian in Paris. The intention - especially in the first 20 pages - is to write
a piece of literature, marked by a careful use of language and his musicality.
Then the story breaks in a very intense dialogue, sometimes too intense, for entire
pages where the prose is almost transformed into a theatrical play, in order to design
the interaction of the artist with the outside world in dynamic - and not more
descriptive - terms.
We said that two
moments in the life of Stiemer / Corinth are narrated.
1 – Stiemer’s
youth in an environment - that of the East Prussian countryside - which speaks
dialect, is characterized by a family life without great horizons, and gives
him many reasons for sadness, also due to the hostility of part of the family
(in particular, the half-sister). The relocation as a child with relatives to
Könisberg, by the will of his father, to go to school; the shock of the
transition from an environment that speaks dialect to one which speaks German;
the ups and downs of the school and the difficult relationship with her aunt; the
early desire to become a painter; the entry into the Academy, and the incessant
wish to draw everything, at any time. And again, the acquaintance, the
friendship and the association with fishermen, butchers, and other humble but
sincere persons - who speak dialect - and not with the other painters. Drinking
and getting drunk as a lifestyle. The critic Michael F. Zimmerman writes that
Corinth has inaugurated the subversive myth of "living drunk in the
immediate proximity of death" and cites the film work of Fassbinder as a
legacy of Corinth. Between Corinth and Fassbinder exists, in his opinion, a
bond also in the representation of images, which are direct and immediate in
both cases [18].
2 - The arrival
at the Académie Julian in Paris,
where at the beginning he pretends to be Belgian Flemish or Bavarian, to escape
the hostility towards the Prussians. The inability to integrate in Paris, his move
to Antwerp in Belgium, where, however, remains deeply disappointed by the
teaching, and his returning to Paris. The loneliness and the discovery of
sexuality in the reprobate evenings in Montmartre. The joy for the decision of
the Académie Julian to produce one of
his paintings, but the disappointment for the manner in which this occurs. The
autobiographic tale ends with Heinrich Stiemer coming out from the exhibition,
cursing and desperate.
Of these issues
Corinth will come back to talk in 1916, in the first part of the Autobiography, published in 1926. Of the
youth memories does exist - as we shall see - another more extended version, published
by his wife in 1953, with the title "My
early years". Compared to these two later texts, we notice in
particular the emphasis on relations with very distant social groups (Heinrich
Stiemer paints day after day in a butcher) and the sense of nausea towards the
French years.
During the years
when he wrote these pages, Lovis Corinth shows a great passion - to some extent
a Rubens-like and Flemish passion – for the naked and the incarnate. The
aforementioned art critic Michael F. Zimmermann – who emphasises however a lot
more than I did face the autonomy of the literary figure of Heinrich Stiemer
compared to the real Corinth - stresses the symbolic role that the theme of
butchery plays vis-à-vis Corinth’s passion for incarnate. And, on the other
hand, meat and fish are one of the themes with which Corinth compared himself
during the whole of his life, perhaps really an effect of the months spent in
Antwerp. Peter Kropmanns left us a complete list of all trips Corinth made [19]:
Flanders and the Netherlands were a favourite destination. He was at Antwerp in
1884, 1902, 1908, and 1925.
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| Fig. 3) The edition of all writings by Lovis Corinth, edited by Kerstin Englert and published by Brothers Mann Verlag of Berlino (1995) |
Let us not
forget, however, that we are in the era of symbolism, as Zimmerman also notes: "If you follow the
autobiographical myth that Corinth put into circulation with "From My Life"
in 1909, his beginnings as a painter are marked by the duality between the
butcher shop and the atelier, between blood dripping from meat and the
sensuality of the skin. In the history of painting as a medium of expression,
two metaphors correspond to this contrast: the work of art as an ‘aesthetic
body’ and the canvas as ‘skin’. Corinth develops its pictorial narrative
between these two opposites. As organic bodies, his painted stories are
composed in absolutely classic ways and complete from the narrative point of
view. And yet he puts the forms very close to the surface of the picture,
leaving them little space, and proposes them in a drastic bodily presence. The
observer does not have the distance from which to decipher and appreciate the
story.(...) Corinth in 1909 - at the time a mature painter - interprets his
early work as a celebration of the flesh - oscillating between blood on the one
hand and incarnate, the colour of the skin on the other." [20]
On Carl Strathmann
The following
sections of the Legends are of an entirely different nature. After From my
life follow, as mentioned above, some critical essays on other painters,
including the ones who frequented the circles of Munich. Here one will discover
Corinth as an art critic, able to write on colleagues and their work in a
convincing way.
The second paper
of the Legends is a short essay on
the symbolist painter Carl Strathmann. He was younger than Corinth by a few
years only (1866-1939). Corinth had also produced a fine portrait of him, a
good decade before. The essay is written in 1902, when Strathmann is 36 years
old. In the following Autobiography
Corinth will not say anything about him, except to mention his name [21] among
the "rabbits" who supported Corinth’s revolt against the secession of
Munich (they were companions of a lost battle; Corinth writes that the name of
many of them had already been forgotten in 1917, at the time of writing the
second part of the Autobiography.
Today on Carl Strathmann there is not even a German wikipedia page).
The words that
Corinth spends for his colleague are very clear: he is a genius who was "shot
down" (direkt in den Schoß gefallen)
from the malice of others. Maybe sometimes an overly cautious man: his best
picture – of a very clear symbolist taste - is the painting of Salambo lying on
the grave, from Flaubert, originally naked; but for scruples of prudery, he covered
her with a mantle of flowers and precious stones. Perhaps a man fighting with
windmills and too stubborn. But, surely, a great painter, according to Corinth.
"The art of Strathmann stands out from the crowd of the artistic
production as a milestone: his work will come to visibility in an increasingly way,
after all that is mediocre will have gone forgotten." [22]. A
prediction that did not turn into reality at all.
Thomas Theodor Heine
The third part
is devoted to another colleague of Corinth, Thomas Theodor Heine (1867-1948),
also a member of the "Free Association" in Munich. The article is
titled "Thomas Theodor Heine and artistic life in Munich at the end of the
last century." We speak here of a great caricaturist and humourist, who
also produced good symbolist art. A difficult and feared man for his sarcasm.
But even a very particular painter, influenced - writes Corinth - by Japanese
and Gothic architecture, and so dedicated "to the absolute form and the
pure line." [23] The article says
that Heine has not yet reached the age of forty, and could therefore have been
written before 1906.
Olaf Gulbransson
A Conspiracy
The following section
is an article on the Norwegian cartoonist Olaf Gulbransson (one of the
designers of the Simplicissimus, a
famous humorous newspaper of Munich).
A Conspiracy
The Legends then suddenly return to the
autobiographical genre with two other writings that intend to document the life
of the painters in Munich, with particular reference to the ‘intrigue’
thematic. This is obviously a very dear topic to Corinth, which titled "Intrigen und Betrachtungen"
(Intrigue and observations) the central portion of his later Autobiography, written in 1917.
The first
writing on memoirs is "Eine
Verschwörung" (A Conspiracy). It opens with the story of a tragic
accident: the young painters of Munich (Munich was the centre of modern
painting in continental Europe after Paris) had organized a big party, adapting
a place, and a sudden fire had cost the lives of some of them. Corinth,
fortunately, sat away from the flames. The clerical circles of Munich had taken
this opportunity to write of a divine punishment in their journal Vaterland (Fatherland). Once having read
the article, the young artists decided to organize a punitive expedition and to
beat the editor in chief of the magazine, a certain Dr. Sigl. Corinth is among
those who have to organize the ambush. The next day, however, people calmed
down and did not do anything. The journal’s redaction, however, has come to the
knowledge of the project and publishes the news about the failed attack. The
episode is not mentioned in the Autobiography.
Memoirs of the Allotria circle
The second
writing on memoirs is Erinnerungen an den
Allotria-Kreis (Memoirs of the Allotria circle). Allotria (the name means,
more or less, something stupid) was a place where many of the Munich artists
met, gathered in the Allotria Circle since 1873. The writing of Corinth refers
to the 34th anniversary, must be therefore of 1907. Corinth reports the news
that his long writing on the polemics between the Allotria members has been
strongly contested in the circle, because considered as insufficiently
objective.
In conclusion, the Legends were certainly an original work: inspired by symbolism, with an autobiographical section and a few essays. It revealed the ambition of Corinth as a writer and art critic, but also his limitations.
NOTES
[1] For an expressionist
interpretation of the last phase of Corinth’s painting, see: Keller, Horst –
Zum Spätwerk Corinths, in “Lovis Corinth, Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und
druckgraphische Zyklen. Museum der Stadt Köln, Ausstellung des
Walraf-Richarts-Museum in der Kunsthalle Köln, 10.Januar bis 21. März 1976“,
pp.13-22, Colonia, 1976.
[2] Corinth, Lovis -
Das Erlenen der Malerei, Ein Handbuch von Lovis Corinth, Third edition, Berlin,
Paul Cassirer, 1920, pp. 205
[3] Corinth, Lovis - Legenden aus dem Kunstlerleben, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1909, pp. 138. The front-cover shows an original sketch by Corinth dated 1908, but the book was printed in 1909.
[4] Corinth, Lovis –
Das Leben Walter Leistikows, Berlin, Paul Cassirer 1910
[5] Corinth, Lovis –
Gesammelte Schriften. Charlotte Berend-Corinth, Mein Leben mit Lovis Corinth,
Introduction and editing by Kerstin Englert, Fathers Mann Verlag,
Berlin, 1995, p.272
[6] Corinth, Lovis –
Selbstbiographie, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig, 1993, pp. 271
[7] Berend-Corinth,
Charlotte – Mein Leben mit Lovis Corinth, Ein Tagebuch der Liebe, Munich, List
Verlag, 1960, pp.187
[9] Corinth, Tomas – Lovis Corinth. Eine
Dokumentation, Verlag Ernst Asmuth, Tubinga, 1977 (see p. 353-354)
[10] Corinth, Lovis –
Selbstbiographie, quoted, p. 179
[11] Corinth, Tomas – Lovis Corinth. Eine
Dokumentation, quoted, p. 119
[12] Horst Uhr definisce le leggende “un
racconto autobiografico divertente ed in parte inventato”. Si veda Uhr Horst - Lovis Corinth, University of
California Press, 1990. Il testo é interamente disponibile su internet: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1t1nb1gf;brand=ucpress
[13] Against the vision of Corinth as a symbolist, see Zimmermann, Michael F. - Lovis Corinth, München, Beck,
2008 (specialmente pagine 70-85)
[14] Caspers, Eva -
Paul Cassirer und die Pan-Presse: Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Buchillustration
und Graphik im 20. Jahrhundert, De Gruyter, 1989
[15] Germanese,
Donatella - Pan (1910-1915): Schriftsteller im Kontext einer Zeitschrift, Königshausen u. Neumann, 2000.
[16] http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Liliencron,+Detlev+von/Autobiographischer+Roman/Leben+und+L%C3%BCge
[18] Zimmermann,
Michael F. - Lovis Corinth, München, Beck, 2008
[19] Kropmanns, Peter
– Lovis Corinth. Ein Künstlerleben, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2008
[20] Zimmermann, Michael F. - Lovis
Corinth, quoted, p.41
[21] Berend-Corinth - Charlotte, Mein
Leben, quoted pp. 32-33
[22] Corinth, Lovis – Legenden,
quoted, p. 79
[23] Corinth, Lovis – Legenden,
quoted, p. 88
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