Lake Walchen, Silver Path
- Date
- 1923
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- depicts
- Walchensee, Bavaria state, Germany, Europe
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 23 3/4 × 35 1/8 in. (60.3 × 89.2 cm)
framed: 32 1/2 × 43 1/2 in. (82.6 × 110.5 cm) - Credit Line
- Bequest of Morton D. May
- Rights
- Public Domain
- Object Number
- 878:1983
NOTES
An explosion of brushstrokes hides the idyllic landscape of the Walchensee, an alpine lake located in the far south of Germany. Look closer and you might see the artist’s daughter in a white dress running past a stand of beeches at center right. Behind her, a hotel rooftop marks the edge of the lake’s expanse. The Walchensee was Lovis Corinth’s retreat in his final years and the site of his mesmerizing works that dissolve into abstraction.
Provenance
1925 -
Charlotte Berend-Corinth (1880-1967), Berlin, Germany, by inheritance from the artist [1]
Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Berlin, Germany [2]
by 1932 - still in 1966
Erich Cohn (1889-1972) and Helene Cohn, New York, NY, USA [3]
- 1970
Kunsthandlung Resch (Franz Resch), Gauting, Germany (near Munich), and Marianne Feilchenfeldt, Zurich, Switzerland (owned jointly)
1970 - 1983
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, USA, purchased from Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, Germany, acting as agent to Marianne Feilchenfeldt and Franz Resch [4]
1983 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of Morton D. May [5]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is Berend-Corinth's 1992 catalogue raisonné [Berend-Corinth, Charlotte. "Lovis Corinth, Die Gemälde, Werkverzeichnis." Munich: Bruckmann Verlag, 1992 (originally published 1958), cat. no. 924]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] Charlotte Berend-Corinth inherited the picture from her husband, the artist, upon his death in 1925.
[2] In 1909, Heinrich Thannhauser (1859-1935) opened his gallery in Munich. After the First World War, Heinrich's son Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976) assumed the leadership of the gallery and opened a branch in Berlin in 1927. The original gallery in Munich remained open until 1928. In 1937, Justin Thannhauser was forced to leave Germany; he established the gallery in Paris later that same year. In 1939, Thannhauser left France and came to New York in 1940 ["Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser," National Gallery of Art website, accessed April 13, 2006,].
[3] Erich Cohn, president of A. Goodman & Sons, Inc., manufacturer of noodles, was a notable collector of German Expressionist art and a lender to numerous exhibitions. He and his wife lent the painting to a 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, according to a label on the reverse of the painting, and confirmation by MoMA's collection manager and exhibition registrar ["Summer Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture." Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 8 - October 23, 1932; email from Allyson Wolfe, Museum of Modern Art, dated March 29, 2006, SLAM document files]. The painting was also included in a 1966 exhibition, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Erich Cohn, New York, and published as such in the accompanying catalogue ["Seven Decades 1895-1965: Crosscurrents in Modern Art." New York, April 26 - May 21, 1966, cat. no. 113].
Over the years, the picture was included in a number of exhibitions and publications as from the Cohn collection [Bertrand, Robert. "Lovis Corinth." Paris: Braun & Cie., 1940, plate 49; "German Art of the Twentieth Century." New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1957, cat. 24]. Although the catalogue raisonné does not include Mr. and Mrs. Erich Cohn in the provenance, it does indicate that the painting was in a private collection in New York; several exhibition catalogues which include this work similarly list it simply as from a private collection ["Lovis Corinth: Gedächtnisaustellung zur Feier des hundertsten Geburtsjahres." Wolfsberg: Stadthalle Wolfsberg, May 4 - June 15, 1958, cat. no. 213; "Lovis Corinth: A Retrospective Exhibition in the Gallery of Modern Art." New York: The Gallery of Modern Art, September 22 - November 1, 1964, cat. no. 67].
Erich Cohn was friends with the artist's wife, Charlotte Berend-Corinth, and regularly acquired Corinth's artwork directly from her; he may have purchased this painting from her as well [notes of telephone conversation between Erich Cohn's son, Richard Cohn, and Emmeline Erikson at the Saint Louis Art Museum, April 21, 2006, SLAM document files].
[4] A receipt for this painting dated October 1, 1970 from Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig to Morton D. May indicates that Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig mediated the sale "on behalf of Frau Dr. Feilchenfeldt, Zürich and Herrn Franz Resch" [May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum].
[5] Last Will and Testament of M. D. May dated June 11, 1982 [copy, May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum]. Minutes of the Acquisitions and Loans Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, September 20, 1983.
Charlotte Berend-Corinth (1880-1967), Berlin, Germany, by inheritance from the artist [1]
Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Berlin, Germany [2]
by 1932 - still in 1966
Erich Cohn (1889-1972) and Helene Cohn, New York, NY, USA [3]
- 1970
Kunsthandlung Resch (Franz Resch), Gauting, Germany (near Munich), and Marianne Feilchenfeldt, Zurich, Switzerland (owned jointly)
1970 - 1983
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, USA, purchased from Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, Germany, acting as agent to Marianne Feilchenfeldt and Franz Resch [4]
1983 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of Morton D. May [5]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is Berend-Corinth's 1992 catalogue raisonné [Berend-Corinth, Charlotte. "Lovis Corinth, Die Gemälde, Werkverzeichnis." Munich: Bruckmann Verlag, 1992 (originally published 1958), cat. no. 924]. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] Charlotte Berend-Corinth inherited the picture from her husband, the artist, upon his death in 1925.
[2] In 1909, Heinrich Thannhauser (1859-1935) opened his gallery in Munich. After the First World War, Heinrich's son Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976) assumed the leadership of the gallery and opened a branch in Berlin in 1927. The original gallery in Munich remained open until 1928. In 1937, Justin Thannhauser was forced to leave Germany; he established the gallery in Paris later that same year. In 1939, Thannhauser left France and came to New York in 1940 ["Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser," National Gallery of Art website, accessed April 13, 2006,
[3] Erich Cohn, president of A. Goodman & Sons, Inc., manufacturer of noodles, was a notable collector of German Expressionist art and a lender to numerous exhibitions. He and his wife lent the painting to a 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, according to a label on the reverse of the painting, and confirmation by MoMA's collection manager and exhibition registrar ["Summer Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture." Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 8 - October 23, 1932; email from Allyson Wolfe, Museum of Modern Art, dated March 29, 2006, SLAM document files]. The painting was also included in a 1966 exhibition, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Erich Cohn, New York, and published as such in the accompanying catalogue ["Seven Decades 1895-1965: Crosscurrents in Modern Art." New York, April 26 - May 21, 1966, cat. no. 113].
Over the years, the picture was included in a number of exhibitions and publications as from the Cohn collection [Bertrand, Robert. "Lovis Corinth." Paris: Braun & Cie., 1940, plate 49; "German Art of the Twentieth Century." New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1957, cat. 24]. Although the catalogue raisonné does not include Mr. and Mrs. Erich Cohn in the provenance, it does indicate that the painting was in a private collection in New York; several exhibition catalogues which include this work similarly list it simply as from a private collection ["Lovis Corinth: Gedächtnisaustellung zur Feier des hundertsten Geburtsjahres." Wolfsberg: Stadthalle Wolfsberg, May 4 - June 15, 1958, cat. no. 213; "Lovis Corinth: A Retrospective Exhibition in the Gallery of Modern Art." New York: The Gallery of Modern Art, September 22 - November 1, 1964, cat. no. 67].
Erich Cohn was friends with the artist's wife, Charlotte Berend-Corinth, and regularly acquired Corinth's artwork directly from her; he may have purchased this painting from her as well [notes of telephone conversation between Erich Cohn's son, Richard Cohn, and Emmeline Erikson at the Saint Louis Art Museum, April 21, 2006, SLAM document files].
[4] A receipt for this painting dated October 1, 1970 from Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig to Morton D. May indicates that Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig mediated the sale "on behalf of Frau Dr. Feilchenfeldt, Zürich and Herrn Franz Resch" [May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum].
[5] Last Will and Testament of M. D. May dated June 11, 1982 [copy, May Archives, Saint Louis Art Museum]. Minutes of the Acquisitions and Loans Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, September 20, 1983.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.