Lovis Corinth

Portrait of Dr Ferdinand Mainzer (1871–1943)

Berlin, 1899

Oil on canvas

Canvas: 75 x 58 cm; Frame: 94.5 x 76.2 x 10 cm

Corinth was a key figure in the development German modernist art, his work a vital bridge between the visual explorations of late nineteenth century Impressionism and the psychological preoccupations of early twentieth-century Expressionism. This is reflected in the trajectory of his own artistic output, and seen even in this early portrait, which features tightly painted details such as the spectacles as well as areas of bravura brushwork like the right hand and cuff. The sitter, Ferdinand Mainzer, was a distinguished Berlin gynaecologist and scholar of antiquity, who fled Nazi Germany in 1939 to England with his family.

Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government from the Estates of Evan and Gisela Stone and allocated jointly to the National Gallery and the Henry Barber Trust, 2021 (No. 2021.1)

Image: © The National Gallery, London