Category: Uncategorized

Alfred Graff´s portrait of Friedrich II (1781)

Born on this day in 1712 Prussian king Friedrich II went down in history as Friedrich der Große, or Frederick the Great. Many of his deeds were memorable, some of them certainly merit being described as impressive but where does “the Great” in his name really come from?

The answer to this and many other questions about der Alte Fritz (Friedrich II´s common name) – some of them you did not even know you actually had – can be found in a brilliant BBC Radio 4 podcast “In Our Time” where the show´s host, Melvyn Bragg, discusses Friedrich´s story with some of the best British experts in the field. Apparently, it was the King himself who ordered Berlin press to refer to him as “der Große” in their reports from the Silesian front: he had the local newspapers and bulletins call him “the…

Just before the outbreak of the First World War, Lovis Corinth was at the peak of his career, and with his wife Charlotte and their two young children, was enjoying everything that Berlin had to offer. He had also worked hard: by the end of 1911, he had painted more than three hundred substantial works in oils.

Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), The Model’s Break (1909), oil on canvas, 60 × 42 cm, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

Corinth seized the moment during The Model’s Break (1909) to capture a more informal and natural full-length portrait of her. This is not an uncommon ruse, which has resulted in some excellent paintings by other artists, and worked well for him too. This was exhibited in the 1913 exhibition of the Berlin Secession.

Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Ice Rink in the Berlin Tiergarten (1909), oil on canvas, 64 × 90 cm, Private collection…

Since Corinth had joined the Berlin Secession in 1901, and two years later married Charlotte Berend, his career had not looked back. Although early family and social life had reduced the number of paintings he produced, their quality remained consistently high, and he was living up to his reputation as ‘the painter of flesh’.

Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), The Childhood of Zeus (1905-6), oil on canvas, 120 × 150 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

The Childhood of Zeus (1905-6) shows Zeus, the senior god among the Greek pantheon, as a young boy at its centre. According to various myths, he was the son of the Titans Cronus (not Chronos, personification of time) and Rhea. Cronus swallowed his other children, so to save Zeus from that fate, Rhea gave birth to him in Crete, and handed Cronus a rock disguised as a baby, which he promptly swallowed.

Rhea then…