Lovis Corinth was born in Tapiau (Gvardeysk), Province of Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, in 1858. His real name is Franz Heinrich Louis Corinth. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1880, which rivaled Paris as the avant-garde art center in Europe at the time. There he was influenced by Courbet and the Barbizon school, through their interpretation by the Munich artists Wilhelm Leibl and Wilhelm Trübner. Corinth then traveled to Paris where he studied under William-Adolphe Bouguereau at the Académie Julian. In 1891 Corinth returned to Munich, where he became a founding member of the Munich "Sezession". Soon, however, the group started to crumble. Some artists split with the main group to form the "Freie Vereinigung". Due to a lack of work the artist went to Berlin in 1901, where he opened a painting school for women. One of his first female students was his future wife Charlotte Berend. Lovis Corinth became an official member of the Berlin "Sezession". When Liebermann was forced to step down as president, Corinth took over his position. In December 1911, he suffered a stroke, and was partially paralyzed on his left side. During Corinth's illness, Paul Cassirer became chairman of the Berlin "Sezession" and in 1913 organized a retrospective, exhibiting 228 oil paintings. In 1915 Corinth was elected president of the "Sezession". In 1917 he the "Akademie der Künste" in Berlin awarded him the title of Professor.

After a summer holiday at Urfeld on Lake Walchensee, Corinth acquired a property there in 1918 and began to build his own house in 1919. Until 1924 the artist repeatedly spent several months at "Haus Petermann" in Urfeld. In his art this is reflected by a series of Walchensee landscapes. Accompanied by a former student, Lovis Corith travelled to Amsterdam in 1925 to see works by Rembrandt and Frans Hals. During this trip to Holland Corinth died of pneumonia. Corinth's oeuvre includes more than 100 paintings and several books and essays on painting. Today Corinth is regarded as one of the "Classics of Modern Art" and his works are exhibited in the most important museums and galleries of the German-speaking world.