Witches 1897

Lovis Corinth created this unsettling scene of Witches using oil on canvas. The materiality of oil paint is very much on display here. It allowed Corinth to render the scene with a fleshy, almost decaying quality. You can see how the artist has built up layers of brushstrokes, creating a rough, almost tactile surface. The thickness of the paint gives a sense of weight and density to the figures, emphasizing their physicality and perhaps their worldliness. The application of paint seems almost frantic, mirroring the emotional intensity of the scene. The contrast between the smoothness of the nude figure and the more vigorously worked surfaces around her is especially striking. Corinth's expressive handling of the oil paint contributes significantly to the painting's dramatic atmosphere, blurring the boundaries between the beautiful and the grotesque, and suggesting a darker side to even the most seemingly conventional scenes. Ultimately, it is the materiality of the work that speaks to Corinth's skill.