In 1920, Lovis Corinth acquired a property on Lake Walchensee, in the South of Germany. Thereafter, he regularly retreated to the countryside in spring and autumn. The natural subjects he pursued, still lifes, landscapes, and self-portraits, appear to have provided a counterbalance to his otherwise intensely social life and growing artistic acclaim: in 1922, his paintings were exhibited at the German Pavilion of the Venice Biennial along with those of Max Liebermann, Oskar Kokoschka, and Max Slevogt; in 1923, Corinth’s solo exhibition opened at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Marked by stylistic and perspectival variety, the works of these years reflect the painter’s undiminished energy and curiosity, often turning to subjects close at hand. The flower still lifes, in particular with their spontaneous brushwork and vivid immediacy convey an almost frantic urge to capture beauty on the verge of fading.

Urfeld am Walchensee captures this state between emotional frenzy and perfect harmony. The composition shifts between idyllic and menacing. Corinth himself described the dramatic weather changes at Lake Walchensee: within minutes, the scenery could transform from beautiful to frightening.

Nature as an image for life itself appears in its truly sublime sense, at once threatening and beautiful. In its energy and confident gesture, Urfeld am Walchensee reveals a mature artist contemplating life and his medium in a gesture of mutual resonance.

Urfeld am Walchensee formed part of the exhibition Lovis Corinth. The Works from Lake Walchensee – Vision and Reality (Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg and Kunsthalle Bremen, 1986). In 2009, it was exhibited at Franz Marc Museum in Kochel am See.