“The Taming of the Shrew” - Lovis Corinth and Charlotte Berend
In October 1901, after Corinth had left Munich for Berlin where he joined the Secession, he opened his “Malschule für Weiber” (Painting School for Women). One of the first students was the twenty-one-year-old Charlotte Berend, who also regularly sat for him and would become his muse. She accompanied him on his first painting trip to the Baltic Sea from July to September 1902, where the large painting “Mädchen mit Stier” (Girl with a Bull, Hamburger Kunsthalle) was created as a testament to the growing relationship between them. When the picture was exhibited at the Berlin Secession, the artist had to put up with quite some banter; the fellow painter and friend Leistikow smugly suggested the title “Taming of the Shrew”. Corinth dedicated another portrait of Charlotte in an ivory-colored lace dress to her with the words “Miss Charlotte Berend, the teacher Lovis Corinth in July 1902” (Stadtmuseum, Berlin). Works that illustrate the growing intimacy and artistic harmony between the two were created during their first stay in Pomerania on the Baltic Sea and the following year. Henceforth, his work gained a certain subtlety, he made more intimate, softer motifs, and the flowing sensuality of his painting style also increased. Corinth was intensively occupied with his partner’s nature and the way she acted, capturing her picturesquely, lying sick in bed, adjusting her garter, at the washbasin, braiding her hair. After their first summer on the Baltic Sea, the couple became engaged in October 1902. In the year of their engagement, the present portrait of his fiancee in a white dress in the dunes was made. It reveals the influence of the French Impressionists shown at Cassirer at the time. Charlotte wears a small sailor's hat, or perhaps more appropriately, a captain's hat, given the role she would henceforth play in Corinth's life. The two married in Berlin on March 26, 1904, while later autobiographical information revealed that the event was predated to the year this painting was created, presumably because of the birth of their first son in October 1903.

The Art Collection of Prof. Dr. Paul Ferdinand Straßmann
"Anyone entering Strassmann’s Women's Clinic on Schumannstrasse, close to Luisenstrasse with the huge facilty of the Charité Hospital just across the street - barely a hundred steps from the ‘Deutsche Theater’ and the ‘Kammerspiele’, must have immediately had a very unique impression of this well-known place of medical endeavor. Through a wide archway, adorned with a memorial to his son who had died in the war and a large bronze bust of Gerhard Hauptmann in a niche opposite of him, one entered the pergola-decorated squared courtyard.. Stairs, anterooms and corridors, study and living rooms had artworks everywhere: oil paintings, watercolors and etchings, bronzes, glass paintings and cabinets, precious crystal and porcelain, memorial coins and knick-knacks, Among them works by Anton von Werner, Lovis Corinth and Leistikow, Philipp Franck and Ury, a collection of still lifes, flower pieces, landscapes and cozy interior scenes by Dutch masters of the great 17th century. Almost every day after he had finished the lecture from twelve to one in his own ground floor lecture hall, my later father-in-law’s favorite pastime was browsing the neighboring art dealers and galleries." (Max Gutzwiller, Büchlein mit dem Denkmal, 1942).
Coming from a famous family of doctors and scientists, esteemed by fellow medical experts like the famous Mayo brothers and acquainted with Berlin artists, Prof. Dr. Paul Straßmann was an impressive personality of the Berlin imperial era and the Weimar Republic. An acquaintance of Lovis Corinth, he not only delivered the children Wilhelmine and Thomas, but also became a great admirer of his artistic work. In addition to the "Verhüllte Frau mit Kindern“ (Veiled Woman with Children, Berend-Corinth 276), Paul Straßmann also acquired the present beautiful portrait of Charlotte Berend-Corinth strolling on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
Prof. Dr. Paul Straßmann could keep neither his clinic nor his extensive art collection after the Nazis had seized power. Due to his Jewish origins, he and his family were persecuted by the regime and lived in fear for their lives as of 1933. In 1936, Prof. Dr. Paul Straßmann was forced to sell his clinic to the Charité. As he moved to moved to Berlin-Dahlem with his family, he had the art collection packed up and stored in his attic. However, lack of space and financial hardship forced Prof. Dr. Paul Straßmann to sell his beloved collection of Old Masters through Rudolf Lepke on February 12, 1937. Being acquainted with the creators, he kept his favorite works by the German Impressionists in the hope of better times. In the summer of 1938, Prof. Dr. Paul Straßmann unexpectedly died on a trip to Switzerland. His wife Hedwig would return to Berlin-Dahlem for a short time. In order to save her life from Nazi persecution, she quickly packed up her belongings and fled to New York, where she was eagerly awaited by her daughter Antonie, the famous sports pilot. Remaining works in her father's once large collection became her property and adorned the large mansion in a New Yorksuburb. In 1950, Antonie Straßmann sold the painting to Schoneman Galleries in New York. The current owners acquired the piece on the New York art market in the 1950s. [KT/SvdL]