science

Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne

Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne rather than just read about it. In short: The Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne in the catalog raisonné (BC 234), (full: Self-portrait with Charlotte Berend and champagne goblet; German: Selbstporträt mit Charlotte Berend und Sektkelch), is a painting by the German painter Lovis Corinth. The double portrait shows himself and his painting student and later wife Charlotte Berend, who is sitting on his lap with her upper body unclothed and i…

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Reference excerpt

The Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne in the catalog raisonné (BC 234), (full: Self-portrait with Charlotte Berend and champagne goblet; German: Selbstporträt mit Charlotte Berend und Sektkelch), is a painting by the German painter Lovis Corinth. The double portrait shows himself and his painting student and later wife Charlotte Berend, who is sitting on his lap with her upper body unclothed and is being embraced by him while he raises a glass. It was created as an engagement painting in Corinth's studio in Berlin in October 1902, a few months before the marriage of the two sitters. The painting, painted in oil on canvas and measuring 98.5 × 108.5 centimetres, is privately owned.

Description The painting shows the artist Lovis Corinth and his later wife Charlotte Berend in the form of a portrait of a couple embracing from the front. Corinth is seated on a chair not visible to the viewer and holds a bottle with a red champagne in his left hand raised towards the viewer. Berend sits on Corinth's right thigh and holds Corinth's shoulders with her arm, her hand resting on the man's left shoulder. She is holding the stem of a flower with a white blossom hanging downwards. Corinth is wearing a green jacket and a white shirt underneath, which is open over his chest. Charlotte Berend's upper body is completely bare and her right arm is hanging down, her hand resting on the fabric of the flowing dress around her hips. With his right arm, Corinth embraces Charlotte Berend's unclothed upper body. His hand, passed under her armpit between her upper arm and ribcage, presses her breast, revealing the nipple between his index and middle fingers. He is leaning his cheek against the woman's naked shoulder, both people looking at the viewer with a smile. The light falls on Charlotte Berend's upper body, so that her shoulder and the right half of her body appear bright, while Corinth's face is in shadow behind her body and is correspondingly darker. According to Beat Wyss, the "amorous Corinth" is "snuggling in the shadow of his half-naked lover, who is sitting on his lap". The background is the wall of a room, which forms a corner with the adjacent wall on the left-hand side. In the corner is a round table covered with a white tablecloth. On it are a bottle of red champagne, two empty champagne bowls, some flowers in a tall vase and, at the front edge, a fruit plate filled with apples and grapes; the picture is signed in the upper left-hand field and dated October 1902 in the upper right-hand margin.

Background and classification

Chronological classification Corinth's encounter with Charlotte Berend and their relationship coincided with the time when he was settling in Berlin. He had completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, in the 1890s. The version of Salome he painted in 1900, a nude painting in a historical setting based on the literary model by Oscar Wilde and showing Salome, daughter of Herodias, with the severed head of John the Baptist, was not to be exhibited at the Munich Secession. Corinth then gave the painting to Walter Leistikow in Berlin, who accepted it for the Berlin Secession exhibition. Due to the great success of the work, Corinth changed his place of residence shortly afterwards and moved to Berlin. The painting Self-Portrait with Charlotte Berend and Champagne Glass is one of the earliest paintings by Lovis Corinth in which he portrayed his future wife Charlotte Berend (1880–1967). Corinth met the then 21-year-old woman in 1901, after he had opened a painting school for young women in Berlin. Charlotte Berend, the daughter of a Jewish merchant family, was his first pupil, and she modeled for him regularly thereafter. In 1902, he traveled with her to the Baltic Sea, where they vacationed together in Horst in Pomerania, today Niechorze. Corinth portrayed her several times that year. The painting Petermannchen and the painting Paddle Petermannchen were both created during their seaside vacation. During their stay in Horst, the relationship between Lovis Corinth and Charlotte Berend deepened and they became lovers. Berend later described in her memoirs My Life with Lovis Corinth how they both sat closely together on a jetty and she told him the story of her first marriage proposal. The painting Self-portrait with Charlotte Berend and champagne goblet was created after a short vacation in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg, an "early honey moon", and was regarded by Corinth as an engagement picture. According to her memoirs, Charlotte Berend-Corinth described its creation as follows:

Lovis asked me: 'Would you like to give me great pleasure? When he was sure I agreed, he continued: 'I have long dreamed of painting a double portrait of us, you as a semi-nude! Just as the situation arises of its own accord after a happy meal, with wine and fruit still on the table. I've already prepared a canvas for this picture, we could start right now - if it would be all right with you!' I had never met him before, or so it seemed to me as he began to paint. He was jubilant as he worked, he was cheerful and exclaimed: 'I want to paint it as it makes me happy. Look how it's progressing, how I'm succeeding, it's painting itself. Let's take a little break! I'll have a sip of wine and you too, otherwise I never drink at work, I don't need a stimulant. He laughed: 'So cheers, my little Petermann, and now back to work! He painted for a few hours and completed our heads and, like him, I could hardly wait for the next day so that he could continue painting.

According to his own statements, Lovis Corinth and Charlotte Berend, who opted for the double name Berend-Corinth, married the following year on March 26, 1903. According to the Charlottenburg registry office, the wedding did not take place until March 1904 - this personal "bringing forward" is explained by the fact that their son Thomas Corinth was born on October 13, 1904, meaning that the bride was already pregnant at the time of the wedding.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne: Porträt Charlotte Berend im weißen Kleid, 1902 — Porträt Charlotte Berend im weißen Kleid, 1902

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne

In research: Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1902 paintings, 20th-century paintings, Nude paintings of women, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

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Why does Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Self-Portrait with His Wife and a Glass of Champagne.