Damenporträt 1911

Lovis Corinth made this portrait of a woman, with oil paint, at some point. I imagine him there in the studio, brush in hand, trying to capture something of her essence. It's a beautiful mess of browns and muted tones, applied with a kind of raw, intuitive energy. I wonder what it was like for Corinth, staring at this woman, trying to understand her, to translate her onto canvas. Her gaze is intense, her hands clasped - I’m curious as to what she might have been thinking. There's a directness in the way he's handled the paint, thick in places, almost sculptural. Like he's building up the form, layer by layer, feeling his way through the process. The way he models the face with quick strokes reminds me of other painters like Manet and even Rembrandt, who were also trying to capture the fleeting nature of human experience. Ultimately, it is this conversation across time that keeps painting alive. It is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.