Götz von Berlichingen (Lovis Corinth)

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Götz von Berlichingen (Lovis Corinth)
Götz von Berlichingen
Lovis Corinth , 1917
Oil on canvas
85 × 100 cm
Museum am Ostwall , Dortmund

Götz von Berlichingen is an oil painting by the German painter Lovis Corinth . It is executed as a landscape format on canvas and has the dimensions 85 × 100 centimeters. The historicizing portrait of Götz von Berlichingen was created in 1917, where he painted the knight while writing his memoirs. After the first exhibition in the Berlin Secession in the year it was created, it was owned by R. Beyer before it was sold to the Museum of Art and Cultural History in Dortmund around 1925 via Alfred Flechtheim . From there it was transferred to the holdings of the Museum am Ostwall , today's Museum Ostwall, in 1957 .

Image description

The painting shows the old knight Götz von Berlichingen in his armor sitting at a table while he is writing down his memoirs. His upper body is cut off at chest height by the green tabletop and he leans forward slightly while writing. The right iron hand is placed on the table top, while the fingers of the left hand guide a pen. The hand lies on a pile of sheets of paper on which he is apparently writing; However, no words can be recognized. The knight is dressed in a sturdy jacket, his face is framed by an iron helmet on his head and a gray beard and his eyes are fixed on the paper with half-closed lids. In the background, directly behind the knight, there is a gray wall with several drawings and behind his left shoulder a staircase with a railing in front of a gray-green wall on which a painting hangs.

Following Lothar Brauner's description, the pen in Berlichingens' hand is Corinth's private steel pen . The armor elements, the helmet and the iron hand are, according to his assessment, only "attributes to make him recognizable as the certain knight." Charlotte Berend-Corinth described the picture in her catalog raisonné of Corinth's paintings as "The knight with a large gray beard, writing his memoirs. "

Origin and interpretation

Portrait of Rudolf Rittner as »Florian Geyer« (1st version), 1906

Lovis Corinth painted the picture of the writing knight in his Berlin studio in 1917 . The real person of Götz von Berlichingen, who lived from 1480 to 1562, was in the background. Corinth knew the knight above all from the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a literary figure and its interpretation by Goethe. At the same time he was aware of Berlichingen's indifferent attitude during the German Peasant War through the work of Gerhart Hauptmann and his drama Florian Geyer , in which he portrayed the knight and diplomat Florian Geyer , who was the Landsknechtsführer in a punitive expedition against Duke Ulrich von Württemberg and among others against whose bailiff Götz von Berlichingen was active. Corinth painted Florian Geyer, played by the actor Rudolf Rittner , as early as 1906. Brauner interprets that, because of this dubious activity, Corinth did not depict him as the commander of an army, but rather while writing his memoirs, which inspired Goethe to write his drama.

Self-portrait in armor , 1914

Corinth was often inspired by plays and also painted several paintings depicting pieces of armor. In addition to others, he created the self-portrait in armor , reclining man in armor and the self-portrait as a standard bearer as early as 1911 , as well as another self-portrait in armor in 1914 . In 1915 he painted, among other things, the pictures In the Protection of Arms and Old Man in Knight Armor , in which men are again dressed in iron armor. In 1918 he also painted a still life with the title Armor Parts in the Atelier and in 1925 he depicted his son Thomas Corinth in Thomas in armor in one of his last pictures .

  • Old man in knight armor , 1915

  • Under the protection of arms , 1915

  • Armor parts in the studio , 1918

  • Thomas in armor , 1925

Provenance and exhibitions

The picture was painted by Corinth in Berlin in 1917 and shown in an exhibition of the Berlin Secession that same year . The picture then passed into the possession of R. Beyer before it was sold to the Museum of Art and Cultural History in Dortmund around 1925 via Alfred Flechtheim . From there it was transferred to the holdings of the Museum am Ostwall , today's Museum Ostwall, in 1957 .

In 1958, the picture was presented as part of the German Painting exhibition and the commemorative exhibition to celebrate Corinth's 100th birthday, both at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg and at the Munich Municipal Gallery . In 1960 it was shown in the Neue Galerie Linz and in 1976 in the Kunsthalle Köln . In 1985 the picture was shown in the Museum Folkwang in Essen and in the art gallery of the Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich. In 1996 and 1997 it was part of a traveling exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the National Gallery in Berlin , the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Tate Gallery .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d Lothar Brauner: Götz von Berlichingen, 1917. In: Peter-Klaus Schuster , Christoph Vitali, Barbara Butts (eds.): Lovis Corinth. Prestel, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7913-1645-1 , p. 224.
  2. ↑ a b c "BC 725 Götz von Berlichingen." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 162.
  3. ^ "BC 327 Rudolf Rittner as Florian Geyer (1st version)." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 102.
  4. ^ "BC 494 self-portrait in armor." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 129.
  5. ^ "BC 495 reclining man in armor." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 129.
  6. ^ "BC 496 self-portrait as standard bearer." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 129.
  7. ^ "BC 621 self-portrait in armor." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 147.
  8. ↑ "BC 656 In the protection of weapons." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 152.
  9. ^ "BC 654 old man in knight armor." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 152.
  10. ^ "BC 727 parts of armor in the studio." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 162.
  11. ↑ "BC 970b Thomas in armor." In: Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 203.
  12. ↑ Götz von Berlichingen, Lovis Corinth, 1917. on alfredflechtheim.com; accessed on December 30, 2019.
  13. ^ Zdenek Felix (Ed.): Lovis Corinth 1858-1925. Publication for the exhibition in the Folkwang Museum Essen (November 10, 1985 - January 12, 1986) and in the Kunsthalle of the Hypno-Kulturstiftung Munich (January 24 - March 30, 1986). DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7701-1803-0 .

literature

  • Lothar Brauner: Götz von Berlichingen, 1917. In: Peter-Klaus Schuster , Christoph Vitali, Barbara Butts (eds.): Lovis Corinth. Prestel, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7913-1645-1 , p. 224.
  • Charlotte Berend-Corinth: Lovis Corinth: The paintings. Revised by Béatrice Hernad. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7654-2566-4 , p. 162.