Lovis Corinth „Bacchant“

228 Lovis Corinth From our auction „19th Century Art“, 27 November 2019, 3 p.m.

Lovis Corinth Tapiau/Ostpreußen 1858 – 1925 Zandvoort Marie-Amélie zu Salm-Salm: Lovis

„Bacchant“. 1913 Corinth, Painter of Sensual Worlds Tempera on canvas. 228,5 × 110 cm. (90 × 43 ¼ in.) Sig- ned and dated lower right: LOVIS CORINTH 1913. With At the apex of his career, in late 1913 and early 1914, Lovis two labels from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Corinth painted a set of eleven wall panels, of which this on the stretcher. Catalogue raisonné: Berend- Bacchant forms part. The project had been commissioned Corinth/Hernad 568. Small, repaired tear. [3208] by Ludwig Katzenellenbogen (1880–1944) and his wife Estel- Framed la for their country villa in Freienhagen to the north of Ber- lin. A prominent Jewish industrialist, Katzenellenbogen had Provenance already made a name for himself as a collector of works by Ludwig Katzenellenbogen, Freienhagen / Estella Kat- the French Impressionists and the Berlin Secessionists. He zenellenbogen, Berlin/Los Angeles (from 1930 until 1991; had hired Corinth at the prompting of gallery owner Paul 1958 on commission at Alexander Gebhardt, Munich, la- Cassirer, who in early 1913 had organized a Corinth exhibiti- ter on loan to Los Angeles County Museum of Art) / art on in Berlin featuring 228 paintings, the most comprehensi- dealership, Aachen / Private Collection, North Rhine- ve ever to be held during the artist’s lifetime. Although Westphalia (1996) / Private Collection, Lower Saxony Corinth and his patron had originally discussed decorating the Villa’s formal dining room with landscape motifs, what the artist ultimately delivered – probably without prior EUR 100.000–150.000 consultation with his client – was a finished cycle of large USD 110,000–165,000 wall paintings depicting scenes of combat and Dionysian revelry inspired by Homer’s “Odyssey” and Ludovico Arios- Exhibition to’s “Orlando Furioso.” Berlin, Berliner Secession, 1916, Cat.-No. 52 / Catalogue In addressing topics that concerned the very existence of the 32nd Exhibition of the Berlin Secession, Lovis Co- of man, Corinth repeatedly drew inspiration from classic rinth. Berlin, Secessionshaus, 1918, Cat.-No. 87, w. ill. / motifs, which he derived from Greek mythology, Christian Lovis Corinth, Ausstellung von Gemälden und Aquarellen iconography or literary works. This genre occupies a promi- zu seinem Gedächtnis. Berlin, Nationalgalerie, 1926, nent position within his oeuvre and bears witness to his Cat.-No. 240 („Weinbekränzter Bacchus“) / Lovis Co- intention to treat traditional themes in a manner that was rinth. Zum hundertsten Geburtstag. Bremen, Kunsthalle, new and provocative in terms of both composition and 1958, Cat.-No. 34 / Mysterium Wein. Die Götter, der imagery. A multi-talented painter and graphic artist who Wein und die Kunst. Speyer, Historisches Museum der could shuttle nimbly back and forth between differing sub- Pfalz, 1996, p. 276, w. ill. jects, painting techniques, and compositional approaches, Corinth managed to find an original solution for the wall- panel project as well. The cycle stands out from the artist’s oeuvre for its conspicuously draftsmanlike painting techni- que. Also notable is the range of colors used, which tend to be rather strident. One explanation for these technical choices is the artist’s use of tempera, which, unlike oil paint, must be applied in short strokes and in multiple, overlapping layers. Lovis Corinth, who had come to be known as a “baroque painter” and depicter of sensual worlds, had become fasci- nated with Dionysian themes as early as the 1890s. At least part of their appeal for him was their power to express the inner world of the psyche. And so the Bacchant, who appears in Corinth’s works in several variations, can be seen as a metaphor for human beings succumbing to intoxi- cation and uninhibited celebration to the point of excess. In this symbolically charged work from 1913, Lovis Corinth depicts a wildly dancing votary of Bacchus who, just like the god himself, wears a leopardskin loincloth. A wreath of grapes encircles his head. He swings a tam- bourine in one hand; in the other, the socalled “Thyrsus” staff, an attribute of the deity and his acolytes. At the feet of the Bacchant lies a leopard, an embodiment of male prowess but also a symbol of debauchery and sinful excess.

Fasanenstraße 25, 10719 Berlin +49 30 885915 0, [email protected] grisebach.com 228 Lovis Corinth From our auction „19th Century Art“, 27 November 2019, 3 p.m.

One is reminded of how the philosopher Friedrich Nietz- sche (1844-1900) juxtaposed the vital, frenzied figure of Dionysius with the aesthetically composed and contempla- tive figure of Apollo as the twin forces guiding human exis- tence. Corinth’s wall panels, including our Bacchant, were destined to grace the Katzenellenbogen Villa only for a short time. In 1929, the industrialist obtained a divorce in order to marry the nubile actress Tilla Durieux, who had previously been in a relationship with Paul Cassirer. As a result, his first wife Estella was awarded half of the couple’s art collection, which included the wall panels. When Estella and her children emigrated to the United States in 1939 to flee the Nazis, she had the works stored in Amsterdam, eventually bringing them to the United States after the Second World War had ended. The Bacchant and his female counterpart, the Bacchantin, were later transferred to the Los Angeles County Museum, the former as a loaned work and the latter as a donation. Six of the other panels were acquired by the Berlinische Galerie in 1980. As of yet, no information has become publicly available regarding the whereabouts of the cycle’s three remaining paintings.

Fasanenstraße 25, 10719 Berlin +49 30 885915 0, [email protected] grisebach.com