Odysseus and Nausikaa

Lovis Corinth's composition depicts a mythological scene, illustrating one of the stories about Odysseus, recorded by Homer in the epic Odyssey. In the middle of the foreground, against the background of a sunny mountain landscape, stands Nausicaa, the daughter of the Phaeacian king Alkinoos and his wife, Arete. A maid and a coachman sitting at the back on a cart drawn by two mules accompany the princess. The girl turns to the wild Odysseus, naked, dishevelled and bearded, huddled under a tree and sheltering himself with a branch. The composition was created using the lithographic technique on paper in 1917 and published in the annual portfolio for 1918 by the Vienna association Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst as a supplement to its magazine of the same title. The print from the Szczecin Museum's collection comes from the second edition of the graphic, published by Albert Berger's Viennese publishing house in 1919.Lovis Corinth was born in 1858 in Tapiewo (now Gwardiejsk) in East Prussia and died in 1925 in Zandvoort in the Netherlands. He studied at art academies from 1876 in Königsberg and Munich. He supplemented his education in Antwerp and Paris at the private Académie Julian with Tony Robert-Fleury and William Bouguereau. He created in opposition to academic teaching. From 1901, he lived and worked in Berlin. The extraordinary expressiveness and drama distinguished his works. Corinth was a versatile artist - a painter, draughtsman, graphic artist, stage designer, and an educator as well.

Ewa Gwiazdowska