CORINTH, LOVIS
1858 Tapiau/East Prussia–1925 Zandvoort

Title: Walchensee mit roten Booten.
Date: 1918.
Technique: Oil on cardboard.
Measurement: 70 x 55 cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower left: Lovis Corinth 1918.
Frame: Craftsman's frame.



Provenance:
- - Tilla Durieux, Berlin

- Galerie Wiltschek, Berlin

- Galerie Kühl, Dresden

- Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (acquired from previous owner in 1932)


Exhibition:
- Galerie Kühl, Dresden 1932


Literature:
- Berend-Corinth, Charlotte: Lovis Corinth – The Paintings, Catalogue Raisonné, revised

by Béatrice Hernad, Munich 1992 (2nd edition), cat. rais. no. 738

- Berend-Corinth, Charlotte: The Paintings of Lovis Corinth – Catalogue Raisonné, Munich 1958, cat. rais. no. 738

- Exhib. cat. Lovis Corinth –

Die Bilder vom Walchensee. Vision und Realität, Ostdeutsche

Galerie Regensburg/Kunsthalle Bremen, 1986, p. 120, ill.



- One of the very first Walchensee paintings

- From the collection of the diva Tilla Durieux, wife of Paul Cassirer

- An exceptionally cheerful, fresh painting by the great German Impressionist

- In the family for almost 100 years



1918, Corinth Discovers Lake Walchen

Lovis Corinth is undoubtedly one of the most important German artists of the modern era. He helped liberate painting of the Imperial period from academic rigidity and continues to exert influence on figurative painting to this day.

Within Corinth’s oeuvre, his paintings of Lake Walchen (Walchensee) occupy a special place. The already mature and celebrated artist discovered the lake and the Upper Bavarian landscape in 1918, rather unexpectedly, while celebrating his sixtieth birthday in Urfeld. The lake—with its surrounding mountain ranges beneath a vast, at times theatrical sky—became one of the principal motifs of Corinth’s later painting.

Together with his wife, Charlotte Berend-Corinth, Corinth created opportunities to paint there regularly. As early as 1919, they built a holiday home near Urfeld, which for many years served as a retreat from bustling Berlin. At Lake Walchen, Corinth was able to devote himself entirely to painting and family life. Here, he left behind both the health crisis caused by a stroke and the suffering associated with the lost war.

Today, more than sixty works featuring Walchensee motifs are counted within Lovis Corinth’s oeuvre. Remarkably, the painter—who had achieved such distinction in history painting, still lifes, and portraiture—had previously engaged with landscape painting only sporadically.



Painted Freshness

Among the rich body of Walchensee paintings, the present work is an especially early example. It is one of only three paintings Lovis Corinth executed during his first stay in Urfeld in 1918—and the very first to depict the lake set against the dramatic mountain panorama beyond.

The work was painted from the balcony of the hotel Fischer am See. From this elevated vantage point, the artist chose a panoramic view of the Walchensee, which simultaneously occupies the lower third of the composition with striking immediacy. The lake, with its three boats, the distant mountains, and the sky are dominated by a vibrant luminous blue, accented with white and red. The opposite, gently rising shoreline pushes into the picture from the left like a green wedge.

Even after more than one hundred years, the painting radiates extraordinary freshness—both chromatically and atmospherically. With vigour and, at the same time, a serene lightness, Lovis Corinth captured the summer day. The red-orange hue that gives the painting its title, Walchensee with Red Boats, acts as a compositional thread, interweaving the surface of the water, the opposite shore, and the clouds.

Here, Lovis Corinth reveals himself as a master colourist entirely in his element.



First Owner: The Great Tilla Durieux

Beyond its historically documented genesis, the painting also boasts a truly impressive provenance. The actress Tilla Durieux (fig. 1), one of the great stage divas of her era, had been married since 1910 to Corinth’s gallerist, Paul Cassirer. It seems highly plausible that Cassirer and his wife were among the guests attending the birthday celebration at Lake Walchen in 1918.

Tilla Durieux may therefore have witnessed the creation of the painting whose first owner she later became. After only a brief passage through the art trade, this exceptional Walchensee jewel remained in the private collection of a single family for nearly one hundred years. It now returns to public view for the first time.

Corinth’s Walchensee paintings, across their many seasons and moods, have often been interpreted as “psychological self-portraits” of the artist. If one follows this line of thought, then the beginning of this cycle in 1918, around the time of his sixtieth birthday, might best be described as “serene yet powerful,” marked by a “calm gaze into the distance.”

Alexandra Bresges-Jung



Estimated shipping costs for this lot:
The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction.

additional shipping insurance


Shipping insurance

up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro

over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo


USA by individual arrangement after the auction.




#Lovis Corinth #Impressionism #Berlin Secession #Munich Secession #Germany #Modern Art #1910s #Nature #Oil #Painting #Modern Art.







In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obliged to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price to this fee.