Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife – I 1914

Lovis Corinth etched “Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife” with frantic energy. It’s as though he’s wrestling with the biblical drama right there on the plate, you know? You can almost feel the pull and push of the scene – a dark figure reaching, while another is pulling away. I think the artist is trying to get at the raw, psychological tension. The scratching feels very German Expressionist, like Corinth is digging into something dark and uneasy about desire and power. Imagine him, bent over the plate, making each mark with a kind of feverish intensity. The story must have stuck in his mind. I bet he saw himself in the picture. When you are an artist the best and worst thing is that everything is a mirror of yourself.