Lovis Corinth is regarded one of the most important artists of German Impressionism and at the same time he paved the paths to Expressionism.
Existential "mankind topics", such as love, passion, violence and death give distinction to prints and paintings by Lovis Corinth. His works cover a remarkably broad range of themes, from landscape over genre and portrait to scenes from ancient history and religious subjects. The outstanding position in art history of Lovis Corinth, who was active in Paris, Munich and Berlin, is based on his inventive approach with both a remarkable modernity and depth, as well as a dynamic expressiveness in his later works. His comprehensive oeuvre, which comprises more then 1000 paintings and about the same amount of watercolors and prints, was defamed as degenerate by the National Socialists and was partly destroyed.
Works by Lovis Corinth can be found in numerous international museums today; in 2008 an ambitious travelling exhibition (Paris, Leipzig, Regensburg) emphasized the artist's innovative power under the programmatic title "Lovis Corinth und die Geburt der Moderne"[Lovis Corinth and the Birth of Modernism].