Fußwaschung

In »Washing of the Feet«, Lovis Corinth depicts two women, lending a sensuous element to his pictorial theme. Instead of employing the Christian motif of the washing of feet—Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the day of the Last Supper as a sign of humility—Corinth uses powerful brushstrokes to contrast two ages and thus the presence of two bodies. The charms of the young woman on the right of the picture are presented openly, but without idealization. She lays completely naked on opulent fabric draperies, showing us her back. Her contented eyes display no trace of shame.

Corinth consciously juxtaposes this sensual beauty with the woman on the left. Fully clothed, she is completely absorbed in her serving role, drying the feet of the younger woman with a white cloth. A strand of gray hair, but also her austere face, indicate her age. The nude plays an important role in Corinth’s work, a genre he employed to address themes which recur throughout his work: power and seduction, passion and intense physicality.