Christian Rohlfs
Topf mit blauer Blume
1919
Water tempera and pastel on heavy textured watercolour laid paper 48.5 x 61.5 cm Framed under glass. Inscribed 'CR 19' in pencil lower right probably by an unknown hand and verso titled "Topf mit blauer Blume" in pencil by Helene Rohlfs. - Very fresh colours. The upper corners and the lower right corner slightly torn at the pinholes, probably studio-related.
The play of opaque and translucent colour in “Topf mit blauer Blume“ (Pot with blue Flower) is characteristic of Christian Rohlf's familiar working method, of repeatedly washing and brushing various layers of paint over the surface of the work - the losses to small parts of the thinner corners of the hand-made paper are probably a result of this.
The blue tones of the water tempera have been partially hightened by the pure blue pigment of the pastel chalk, and in the interaction with the black accents it provides the image with an unreal effect. In the piece, colour becomes an independent factor separate from the subject of the painting. In contrast to the artist's previous works, the species of plant depicted cannot be identified, which makes the piece appear all the more modern, almost oscillating within an associative space between the "Blue Flower" of the Romantics and the pure blue of Yves Klein.
In 1919, the year in which the “Blaue Blume” was painted, the 70 year old artist met and married the significantly younger Helene Vogt.
Catalogue Raisonné
Not recorded by Vogt
Certificate
With a certificate of authenticity by the Christian Rohlfs Archive Hagen, dated 4 March 2014. The work was registered under the number CRA 94/14. We would like to thank Birgit Schulte, Christian Rohlfs Archive, Osthaus Museum Hagen, for kind additional information.
Provenance
Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf (with receipt dated 14 Oct. 1969), since then in private possession, Rhineland