Hermann Struck (Étude de portrait H. St.)
1920
Lovis Corinth captured his good friend and fellow artist Hermann Struck in this energetic portrait study from 1920. You can almost feel the speed of the artist's hand as he sketched out Struck's intense gaze and bushy beard with rapid, scratchy lines typical of German Expressionism. The two men were actually close colleagues who taught together at the Berlin Academy, making this an intimate look at a peer rather than a formal, stiff portrait. The loose style focuses entirely on capturing the character and mood of the subject, signed with a flourish at the bottom.