Portrait of Alfred Kuhn

After Lovis Corinth suffered a stroke in 1911, his style was radically altered. It transformed this major representative of German Impressionism into an expressive Colorist. Especially poignant are the self- portraits of his late career. The feverish visions of the artist reflect a man who never tired of questioning himself. The extreme lighting and the tension in these images is also perceived in his portraits of other subjects. Corinth has rendered here the likeness of his biographer, Alfred Kuhn, submerged in dramatic contrasts between light and dark. As if from an unbridled stream, the brush strokes simulate illumination that cascades diagonally downward from above. Even as the depiction seems to compose itself around the parts of the face, the overall effect of such hasty application of paint goes unmitigated.