Max Slevogt began at the Munich Academy as a pupil of Wilhelm von Diez, and went on to Paris where he attended the Academie Jullian, and copied a number of Old Masters in the Paris museums. He settled in Berlin, and from 1917 onwards taught at the Academy. Like Lovis Corinth, who was ten years his senior, he represents what might be called Berlin Impressionism - that is, he took over from the French Impressionists, whose works he had been able to see in Berlin on two occasions, their fresh bright colouring, without adopting the more extreme aspects of their technique such as fragmenting colours. Slevogt was a great music-lover, being especially fond of Mozart and Wagner. He enjoyed painting scenes of contemporary life and was particularly attracted by the theatre, while his portraits are reminiscent of Manet whom he much admired. He was a talented book illustrator with a real gift of imagination and a typically German fluency of line.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978