Sale: 539 / Modern Art Day Sale, June 10. 2023 in Munich Lot 319

 

319
Lovis Corinth
Selbstbildnis, 1919.
Gouache
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 34,290 / $ 37,033

(incl. surcharge)
Selbstbildnis. 1919.
Gouache.
Upper right signed and dated "Februar 1919". On firm wove paper. 34.6 x 25 cm (13.6 x 9.8 in), the full sheet. [JS].

• Corinth's self-portraits are striking encounters with the self and make for a key body of works in his œuevre.
• The famous painting "Selbstbildnis mit Skelett" (1896), regarded the starting point of Corinth's series of self-portraits, is part of the collection of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.
• Another painting "Selbstporträt mit Palette" (1924) is in possession of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
• From the important year 1919, when Corinth turned his back on the city of Berlin in the early years of the Weimar Republic to retreat to his house on Walchensee, where his outstanding late œuvre came into existence
.

We are grateful to Dor Levi, Ramat Gan, John F. Littman, Houston, Cornelia Muggenthaler, Munich, and Anna Rubin, New York, for the kind support and the good cooperation.

PROVENANCE: Collection of Wilhelm Gumprecht family, Berlin? (with the collctor's stamp on the reverse).
Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau (until 1932).
Aucttion house Hermann Ball / Paul Graupe, Berlin (on consignment from the ownership of the above in March 1932, unsold).
Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau (from 1932).
Privately-owned (1950).
Private collection Hamburg.
Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin (from the above, the latest from 1973 until 1977).
Private collection Baden-Württemberg (acquired from the above in 1977).
Amicable agreement between the above and the heirs after Ismar Littmann (2023).
No pending restitution claims. The offer is made subject to the amicable agreement with the heirs after Dr. Ismar Littmann.

EXHIBITION: Lovis Corinth. Gedächtnis-Ausstellung Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Graphik, Sächsischer Kunstverein Dresden, January 22 - mid March 1927, cat. no. 168.
Lovis Corinth. Gedächtnisausstellung zur 25. Wiederkehr seines Todestages, Landesmuseum Hanover, July 16 - September 3, 1950, cat. no. 172.
Lovis Corinth. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Handzeichnungen und Grafik, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin, January 29 - March 24, 1973, cat. no. 22 (with color illu. on p. 14).

LITERATURE: Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau, inventory, 1930, no. 62.
Hermann Ball / Paul Graupe, Berlin, Gemälde und Plastiken neuerer Meister aus zwei Berliner Privatsammlungen. Gemälde u.a. von Boudin, Constable, Courbet, Degas, Renoir, Corinth, Liebermann, Leibl, Trübner, March 21, 1932 (catalog no. 16), lot 33.
"The self-portraits comprise thousands of nuances of the soul, all the possibilities of his psychological reactions and his behavior towards himself - the whole biography of his soul unfolds before us. [..] Those were very serious and critical encounters with his own self."
Quoted from: Charlotte Berend-Corinth, Lovis, Munich, 1958, p. 81.

In its painting style, the present watercolor appears both concentrated and fleeting; Corinth worked without a preliminary drawing and applied the color onto the paper with expressive and loose brushstrokes. Corinth demonstrates his poised style that is so characteristic of the landscapes made at Walchensee landscapes in his much celebrated late creative period. He created an account of an intimate moment, with Corinth allowing a glimpse into his inner life which was troubled by the political situation after the end of the empire. The artist's self-portraits show an intensive examination of the self, his perception as an artist and his role in society. In doing so, Corinth builds on an important art-historical pictorial tradition rooted in the art of the early modern age, with the self-portraits of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) and Rembrandt (1606–1669) as the most prominent examples. It is the urge for self-reflection, the "desire to understand oneself as an artist" that to this day motivates artists to an artistic confrontation with the self. In the 20th century, Corinth's self-portraits made another art-historically significant contribution to this tradition, which the Hamburger Kunsthalle acknowledged in a 2004 exhibition titled "Ich. Lovis Corinth – die Selbstbildnisse".
Corinth's self-portrait entered the Littmann Collection by 1930 at the latest. The Wroclaw lawyer was a true Corinth admirer. His collection included more than a dozen paintings and almost 600 prints by the artist. Our work is mentioned in the inventory of the Littmann Collection under number 62. However, an attempt to sell through the Graupe auction house and the renowned antiquarian Hermann Ball in March 1932 failed, because the art market performed extremely poorly in those years. The work thus returned to Ismar Littmann. When and under what circumstances Dr. Ismar Littmann or his heirs, who, with luck, managed to flee abroad, parted with Corinth's "Self-Portrait", remains uncertain. It was not until 1950 that the work reappeared in a German private collection. Today, the self-portrait with its eventful history can be offered in an amicable agreement with the heirs of Dr. Ismar Littmann. [JS / AT]



319
Lovis Corinth
Selbstbildnis, 1919.
Gouache
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 34,290 / $ 37,033

(incl. surcharge)