Lovis Corinth

W. Peitz, Hamburg
Kappenheim Collection, Breslau
Private Collection, Germany (acquired circa 1930s)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Charlotte Berend-Corinth, Lovis Corinth, Die Gemälde, Werkverzeichnis, Munich, 1992, no. 601, illustrated p. 645

The canvas is not lined and there is no evidence of retouching visible under UV light. There is some very light craquelure in small localised areas. Otherwise, this work is in overall very good condition.
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Painted in 1917, Kastanienblüten exhibits the richly expressive brushwork and vigorous, painterly style of Corinth's mature œuvre. Writing about these late works, Georg Bussmann commented: 'He rejoices in painting wet upon wet, in painting colour upon colour, in smudging them and then stopping suddenly and simply allowing them to glow; there is a quality of rage in making all this into a picture, into forcing a vision to emerge' (G. Bussmann, 'Lovis Corinth: The Late Works', in German Art in the Twentieth Century. Painting and Sculpture 1905-1985 (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1985, p. 436).

The paintings that Corinth completed during the later years of his life are among his most stylistically daring. Kastanienblüten demonstrates a higher level of abstraction than many of his earlier canvases and are explicitly modern interpretations of the natural world. The rich, heavy impasto brushstrokes combined with a strong, deep palette is a characteristic of the artist's flower paintings.