The Magdalen with Pearls in her Hair 1919

Lovis Corinth painted this fleshy Magdalen with thick, almost muddy strokes back in 1919. I imagine him wrestling with the canvas, building up layers of pigment to capture the weight and warmth of her body. There's a raw intensity in the way he's rendered her form, all those browns, creams, and ochres blending into a kind of earthy sensuality. I wonder if he was thinking about Rembrandt, about that same tension between the spiritual and the carnal. See how the brushstrokes around her face are so loose, almost brutal? It's like he's trying to dig beneath the surface, to find something real and human in this biblical figure. The way she clutches the cloth to her breast, the pearls in her hair... it's all part of this struggle to reconcile desire and repentance. Painters have been wrestling with these ideas for centuries. Each new painting is a chance to enter that conversation, to add our own voice to the mix.