Tod und Paar (Death and the Couple) from Totentanz (Dance of Death)

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Tod und Paar (Death and the Couple) from Totentanz (Dance of Death)

Artist Lovis Corinth (German, 1858-1925)

Publisher Euphorion Verlag, Berlin

Date1921 (published 1922)

Dimensions(Sheet) H: 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm); W: 9 7/8 in. (25.1 cm);
(Image) H: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm); W: 7 in. (17.8 cm)

MediumSoft-ground etching on cream wove paper.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Barbara Sunderman Hoerner

Object number

2004.68

Not on View

Label TextLovis Corinth, one of the most successful artists in Germany in the early 20th century, was called the latter-day Rubens. After suffering a stroke in 1911 that caused paralysis in his left side, his style became more expressionistic, even violent at times. In Totentanz (Dance of Death), a set of five etchings, he modernizes a theme explored by German printmakers since the Renaissance: the inevitability of death. In this gloomily atmospheric print, a couple (Corinth’s close friends the etcher Hermann Struck and his wife Mally) together confront Death, dressed in a high hat and holding an hourglass. The Strucks hold hands, seeming to strengthen one another as they stare into Death’s hollow eyes.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, New Works on Paper, Dec. 2005 - Mar. 5, 2006. Toledo Museum of Art, European Expressionist and Cubist Works on Paper: 1900-1930, December 2, 2011-March 11, 2012 (University of Toledo Student Exhibition).Comparative ReferencesSee also Lovis Corinth (Saint Louis: The Saint Louis Art Museum)