Self-Portrait

Lovis Corinth, April 19, 1923

Download3062 × 4000 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Lovis Corinth (German, 1858–1925)
Medium: Pen and brown ink on cream wove Japanese paper
Size: 8 3/16 × 6 1/4 in. (20.8 × 15.88 cm) (sheet)
Museum: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rights: Public Domain Mark

Lovis Corinth advocated for an aggressive, intensely competitive approach to life, going so far as to offer this advice: “Use all your might to achieve your highest goal. . . . use your greater strength to push your rivals against the wall until they can no longer gasp.” Then, in 1911, Corinth had a stroke and suddenly found his physical powers greatly diminished. After that he made many self-portraits, showing his own frailty with unflinching honesty.

When an artist requested a photograph of Corinth, presumably to make a caricature for a satirical magazine, Corinth instead sent him this drawing. Was he sardonically presenting his own features to suggest that nature had already perpetrated the distortions of a caricaturist?

Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.