Portrait of Charlotte Berend in white dress 1902

Lovis Corinth captured Charlotte Berend, dressed in white, with oil on canvas. The peach and beige background is warm and alive, built from many gestural marks and erasures. You can imagine the act of painting here as a dance between control and intuition, a back-and-forth where the image emerges through trial, error, and revision. I sympathize with Corinth—the struggle to capture the fleeting qualities of light, texture, and form! The paint here looks thin, allowing Corinth to build up layers of transparent color. I imagine him trying to create an impression of depth and volume with the strokes. The way he renders her dress communicates a feeling of lightness and airiness. Painters are always looking at other painters, borrowing, stealing, and transforming ideas across generations. When I look at this piece, I think of other figurative painters like Manet or Sargent. Each artist brings their unique perspective to the act of seeing and representing the human form.