The Visitation Dinner, illustration for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Prints and Drawings

c. 1907

Lovis Corinth
German, 1858-1925

This drawing, reproduced in the 1908 edition of the English writer Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, highlights Corinth’s use of satire to comment on both religion and human folly. Here, the title character, who was mistakenly baptized with the name Tristram, wishes to see if it can be changed. Just as the debate begins, a hot chestnut falls into the lap of the man in profile on the right. His mouth opens in pain, as his right hand grips the back of his chair, with a slapstick humor that seems to emulate the work of the English artist William Hogarth.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Lovis Corinth
Title: The Visitation Dinner, illustration for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1902–1912
Medium: Brush and black ink, gray wash, and white gouache, with graphite, on white wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed recto, upper right, in brush and black ink: "Lovis Corinth"; verso, center, in graphite: "Lovis Corinth 43/ 7 III 3139"
Dimensions: 25.1 × 34.4 cm (9 15/16 × 13 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.1052

Laurence Sterne, Die Leben und die Meinungen von Herrn Tristram Shandy (Berlin and Leipzig: Buchverlag fürs deutsche Haus, 1908), illus. after page 144, within chapter 61.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh (ed.), Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2006), p. 185, cat. 136 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, p. 185, cat. 136 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” March 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

Bruno Cassirer (1873–1841), Berlin; confiscated by the Gestapo, 1942; sold at auction, 1944, to the Nationalgalerie, later Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin [stamps (Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin/SMPk / Freigegeben, encircled; NG / Berlin; Nationalgalerie, Berlin) verso, center, in brown ink]; restituted to the heirs of Bruno Cassirer, Aug. 2002; Christie’s, London, Feb. 2, 2003, lot 404A, sold after sale to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

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The Visitation Dinner, illustration for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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