The Viennese Secession. Victoria Charles

Zwölf Künstlerdrucke (Twelve Artistic Prints) (1909). His smooth charcoal and crayon-drawings garnered such fame that composer Willi Kollo (1904–1988) and songwriter Hans Pflanzer wrote a song that was later popularised through the interpretations by German chanson singer Claire Waldoff, and later Hildegard Knef. The famous chorus was a homage to Zille’s favourite topic and his familiarity with the “scene”:

      Das war sein Milljöh

      Das war sein Milljöh.

      Jede Kneipe und Destille

      Kennt den guten Vater Zille.

      Jedes Droschkenpferd

      Hat von ihm gehört.

      Von N. O. bis J. W. D. —

      Das war sein Milljöh.

      That was his milieu

      That was his milieu

      Every pub and distillery

      Knows good father Zille

      Every coach horse

      Heard of him

      From N. O. to Jottwede

      That was his milieu [loose translation]

      Franz von Stuck, Poster for the First International Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists of Munich (Secession), 1893.

      Coloured lithograph.

      Museum Villa Stuck, Munich.

      Through Max Liebermann’s introduction he joined the Berlin Secession, where he quickly made friends with the other artists, especially Käthe Kollwitz.

      Another member from the first Generation of Secession artists was Lovis Corinth, who started his study of the fine arts with genre painter Otto Günther (1838–1884) in Königsberg. Four years after he had started his apprenticeship with Günther he moved to Munich. After serving in the military for a year he lived in Antwerp for a short time before moving to Paris in order to attend the Académie Julian. However the city could not satisfy his restlessness for long. He returned first to Königsberg, moved to Berlin in 1888 and three years later to Munich, where he joined the Munich Secession. Later, he left Munich again when his Salomé was refused for exhibition by a jury of Secession artists. Biblical and mythological themes were the main focus of his works: for example, Home-coming Bacchants (1895), Kreuzabnahme (Deposition from the Cross) (1895), Crucifixion (1897/1898), Salomé (1900), and Der geblendete Simson (The Blinded Samson) (1912). Furthermore, he painted excellent nude studies, intimate portraits, scenes from daily life, and still-lifes. All of his works reveal an unusal amount of creative energy that truly marked Lovis Corinth as an awe-inspiring artist.