Salomé II

Lovis Corinth was recently suggested by one of our users (thank you!) - and after reading his email I realized that we haven't featured him yet and what a shame it is!

Corinth was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth repeatedly turned to themes of love, sexuality and death, taking inspiration from the classical subjects of Greek mythology, the Christian religion and the literary world. His uninhibited, distinct brushstrokes were initially inspired by Frans Hals and Rembrandt.

Here Corinth depicts Salomé, the biblical temptress who danced so seductively for King Herod that he granted her malicious request for the head of John the Baptist. One contemporary critic described Corinth's depiction of the grotesquely made-up Salomé opening the eyelids of the severed head as particularly perverse. The rejection of the canvas by the Munich Secession in 1900, and its acceptance by the more progressive Berlin Secession that same year, was one reason why Corinth abandoned Munich for Berlin in 1902.