(Tapiau/Ostpreußen 1858–1925 Zandvoort)
Girl with fan and carnations – Mädchen mit Fächer und Nelken, 1897, signed Lovis Corinth, oil on canvas, 58 x 72.5 cm, framed

Photo-Certificate:
Hans-Jürgen Imiela, Mainz, 19 September 1984
Hans-Jürgen Imiela, Mainz, 31 March 1986

Provenance:
Sale Lepke, Berlin, 10 October 1916, lot 147a
The Hannes Family, Sydney, Australia
Their sale Christie’s, London, 27 November 1981, lot 129
Private Collection, Germany

Literature:
Weltkunst 1982/1, p. 56
Charlotte Berend-Corinth, Lovis Corinth - Die Gemälde, Munich 1992, no. 993, p. 210, with ill. p. 901

Lovis Corinth is one of the most important representatives of German Impressionism. Nevertheless, his works and their characteristically headstrong and dramatic effects tend towards the Expressionist style. His oeuvre showcases a diverse repertoire, ranging from genre paintings to mythological and biblical subjects, still lifes and, above all, self-portraits. The main creative phase of his female portraits covers several years from 1891 onwards, during time which he returned to living in Munich after graduating from the Académie Julian in Paris and became a founding member of the Munich Secession. The present work Girl with Fan and Carnations dates from this period.
The fundamental values identified in these early paintings essentially determine Corinth’s painterly oeuvre as a whole. The sensuality, the enthusiasm for the naked human body, especially one lush and feminine, and the often Arcadian compositions were already noted as Rubenesque by his contemporaries. The many nudes and semi-nudes of his wife Charlotte Berend are eloquent testimony to this. The delicacy and love for the milky smoothness of skin with which Corinth painted naked bodies offer unmistakeable parallels to Rubens.

The snapshot of our unknown sitter – who faces the viewer squarely as she moves, her head slightly elevated, her dark brown eyes fixed directly ahead – is boldly directed at the viewer. Her pale, partially exposed torso is encircled by a translucent lime green robe. Her striking facial features are given additional definition by her sternly shaped eyebrows and the beauty mark above her right cheek. She presents the viewer with a branch of carnations in her right hand and an elaborately decorated fan in her left. Almost nude, the girl looks at the viewer or patron. The carnations and fan may indicate the relationship between the two people. The fan is not merely a fashion accessory, but was widely used to extend body language since the 18th century. Society ladies used fans in conjunction with looks and gestures to convey discreet messages to their admirers. The carnation was certainly not an arbitrary choice either. Also known as „Dianthus“ - the flower of the gods – the carnation is as multifaceted in its symbolism as the painting itself. The red carnation generally stands for love and affection, which underlines the intimate moment of this portrait. Although the chosen composition allows the viewer to become a participant in this seemingly intimate moment through the girl‘s flirtatious gaze, it does not diminish the viewer to a voyeur. The woman is shown as desirable without any moral resonance for the male viewer.

“As the music evolved by man and the singing of the birds is only really a response to sexual attraction, so too is painting a purely sensual expression. I would probably say that eroticism, as a purely painterly concept, would be the most profound and the hardest to master”

Christoph Vitali, Barbara Butts & Klaus Peter Schuster, Lovis Corinth, exhibit. cat., Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1996, p. 54