Chrysanthemen im Krug 1918

Lovis Corinth made this painting of Chrysanthemums in a jug in 1918, and the way he's piled up the paint is really something. The texture! You can practically feel the bristles of the brush, churning the paint into these thick, lively dabs. Look at the petals – some are almost sculptural, they’re so built up. And the colours, a mix of whites, reds, and creams, all kind of fighting for space on the canvas. There's this one little stroke of deep red right in the middle of the bunch, it's like a tiny explosion. The way Corinth handles paint reminds me a bit of Courbet, that same love for the materiality of the medium. But Corinth brings a certain looseness, an expressionistic energy. It's like he's not just painting flowers, but the very act of seeing them. For Corinth, and for us, art is always a conversation, a back and forth. It invites us to see the world, and our place in it, with fresh eyes.