The wonderful painting above is titled, Ulysses fighting the Beggar, and was painted by the German artist, Lovis Corinth [1858/ 1925] in 1903. And its Corinth’s honour, not Homer’s that I want to defend; for there are enough bow-tie wearing, ponytailed male academics, and grey haired, sandal wearing female ones to keep the flame of Homer or Shakespeare, Leonardo, Michelangelo or Botticelli and all the other usual suspects [the big brand and franchise names in the art world] burning for ever, but too few academics and museum directors who are willing to speak up for men or women like Corinth. Why? Firstly because there is no money in, e.g. Corinth—even though he was an exceptional painter and draughtsman and the most important painter in Germany in his day—and secondly because you cannot put him in a box, label him with a catchy slogan and aim him at a target market. Or can you?
If he was marketed as a man, who when a boy, had as much natural ability to draw as Picasso and who later trained in Munich and Paris and although a great admirer of Rubens, Rembrandt and Hals, was always his own man – and was in fact in the habit of painting a self-portrait on or around his birthday every year – surely that would make a certain group of art lovers take note. And if we were also told that he started a painting school for women, was a wonderfully sensual painter of women, and that after his death his paintings were removed by the Nazis from public and private collections in Germany and branded alongside many others as degenerate; would that not appeal to freedom loving, hedonist lefties like ourselves. And finally, if we were to learn that in 1911, at the age of fifty three, he suffered a stroke and within months, with the encouragement of his devoted wife, Charlotte, [also a painter] was painting again but with his other hand and more freely and expressively than ever and adding landscapes to his usual—portraits, self-portraits, figure studies and works depicting biblical and classical stories; would that not be just up the street for those who believe that love can conquer all? So there is a potentially huge band of Corinth admirers in lefty, hedonist, sentimental Sunday painters, as well as a smaller group of professional artists who might still know something about painting and drawing and do it out of necessity and love more than for the money. But because of who we are, probably none of us have any serious money and are therefore disregarded by the ‘Art World’—and our champions, men and women who could really draw and paint are now hardly remembered and regarded as irritations to the main business of art, which is making money.
Below, are three landscapes and three self-portraits by Corinth and at the end of the blog is the link to an hour long movie by the late Robert Hughes, The Mona Lisa Curse, which is essential and chilling viewing.
The self-portrait above was painted at his beloved, Walchensee, a lake in the Bavarian Alps, and the landscape below is of the Walchensee in autumn.
Below is a sublime painting called, Lake Lucerne Early Morning, and was painted the year before he died.
Here are two self-portraits—one, an early painting, Portrait with Skull, from 1896, the other a lithograph done in 1920 which shows what a wonderful draughtsman he was.
And finally, a painting that I have to admit makes me green with envy and one of a few that I believe would hold its own if ever hung next to the best paintings by Frank Auerbach. It is called, Storm on Cap Ampeglio, and is from 1912.
diarysundaypainter 
A revelation! Thank you. w