Charlotte Berend-Corinth

Charlotte Berend, portrait by Lovis Corinth: Portrait of Charlotte Berend in a White Dress, 1902, oil on canvas, Stadtmuseum, Berlin

Charlotte Berend-Corinth (May 25, 1880 – January 10, 1967) was a female German painter and artist in the Berliner Secession. She was married to German painter Lovis Corinth.

Life

Charlotte Berend studied fine arts at the Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseum, taught by Eva Stort and Max Schäfer. In 1901 she was the first student at the private art school of Lovis Corinth, who fell in love with her. She became his model for a number of paintings, including Portrait of Charlotte Berend in a White Dress (seen at right). On 26 March 1903, she married Corinth and changed her name to Berend-Corinth. On October 13 the same year their son Thomas Corinth was born, and their daughter Wilhelmine Corinth was born on 13 June 1909.

Berend-Corinth began exhibiting her paintings at the Berliner Secession in 1906. She joined the Secession in 1912 and did not leave it after the separation of the new Freie Secession led by Max Liebermann when Lovis Corinth became its new leader. She painted book illustrations for Max Pallenberg, Fritzi Massary, and Valeska Gert and painted portraits of Michael Bohnen, Werner Krauss, Paul Bildt and Paul Graetz. In the 1920s she supported young artists from the theatres in Berlin. In 1919 Lovis Corinth bought a house in Urfeld at Walchensee where he and his wife could retire from their life in Berlin. Corinth here painted landscapes, portraits and still lifes and more and more retired from the active arts scene. He died in 1925 during a journey to the Netherlands.

Berend-Corinth emigrated in 1933 with her children to the United States of America and lived in New York. In 1958 she published a book of the complete paintings of Lovis Corinth, which became a standard work and is in use today in a 1992 edition from Béatrice Hernad.

Berendt-Corinth died in 1967.

Sources

• Pfefferkorn, Rudolf (1972). Die Berliner Secession. Eine Epoche deutscher Kunstgeschichte. Berlin: Haude & Spenersche Verlagsbuchhandlung
• Corinth, L., Schuster, P.-K., Vitali, C., & Butts, B. (1996). Lovis Corinth. Munich: Prestel. ISBN 3791316826

Persondata
Name	Berend-Corinth, Charlotte
Alternative names
Short description	female German painter, wife of Lovis Corinth
Date of birth	25 May 1880
Place of birth
Date of death	10 January 1967
Place of death