This volume brings together, in English translation for the first time, the formative essays of Max Raphael (1889–1952), the philosopher and art historian who first gave a name and theoretical foundation to Expressionism. Written between 1905 and 1913 and originally rediscovered in German as Das schöpferische Auge (1993), these texts mark the earliest systematic attempt to define a new artistic language emerging in the German-speaking world.

In his polemics and analyses, Raphael not only defended the radical modernism of artists such as Pechstein, Nolde, Heckel, and Schmidt-Rottluff against institutional hostility, but also set Expressionism apart from Impressionism by identifying its guiding principle: the transformation of fleeting impressions into clear, necessary, and expressive form. His 1911 article Der Expressionismus was the first to theorize the movement under that name, establishing concepts that would shape the reception of twentieth-century art.

Raphael’s lifelong project, which he later described as an “empirical theory of art,” encompassed not only modern painting but also classical architecture, medieval sculpture, and Paleolithic cave art. John Berger would later dedicate his study of Picasso to this “forgotten but great critic,” while Herbert Read ranked him among the most significant theorists of art in the first half of the twentieth century.

The Invention of Expressionism restores to view the moment when a young, fiercely independent critic confronted the art of his time with clarity, passion, and prophetic insight.