CORINTH, LOVIS

born July 21, 1858, Tapiau, East Prussia [now Gvardeysk, Russia] died July 12, 1925, Zandvoort, Neth. painter who introduced a variation of Impressionism into German art, influencing with his free brushwork and strong colours the subsequent course of German Expressionism. Corinth's training was academic and was taken after 1884 in Paris under the French painter Adolphe-William Bouguereau. There, however, he was influenced both by the French Impressionists and by the work of Peter Paul Rubens, and, after he settled in Berlin in 1900 his pictures, which were sombre at first, gained brilliance from the former and vitality from the latter. Thus equipped, Corinth headed the Sezession movement against the academic school in Berlin, with the collaboration of Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann. Early in the 20th century he began to devote much of his time to fighting the rise of Expressionism, a style that he unwittingly helped to foster. Subsequently he realized its merits and adopted a number of its characteristics, although he never completely divested himself of Impressionist mannerisms. Though best known for his landscapes of the Walchensee area and for his portraits, Corinth also painted religious scenes, often violent ones such as the Golgotha altarpiece (190911). He also made etchings and lithographs, such as Apocalypse (1921), that reveal more than do his paintings his capacity for Expressionist power.