Lot 314 Dα

“Rarely has a sudden shift in the personal circumstances of a painter's life - particularly one at such an advanced age - affected a pictorial oeuvre as lastingly and deeply as that of Christian Rohlfs.
The paintings after 1919 are diverse in their outward appearance, rich in content and cheerful and carefree in their use of colour; through their inner composure and painterly richness they differ strongly from their predecessors. While the artist had certainly already had an affirmative attitude towards life, it seems as though the barriers have fallen which had separated him from the true abundance of existence. For the first time, we experience both the heights of which Rohlfs was still capable and how little age, which in his case counted only in terms of numbers, signified an obstacle to a new extension of his work. How radiant a blue seems now, how glowingly he now paints tones of red! It is only nuances in his use of colour and application of paint that change, but they are of decisive significance.” (Paul Vogt, Christian Rohlfs: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, Recklinghausen 1958, p. 74)
The beautiful sheet here, which features red poppies, is a characteristic example of the remarkable floral images of those years. Carried out on large sheets of laid watercolour paper, the watercolour technique is now supplemented by the luminous colours of the water-based temperas so typical of Rohlfs's work. Their special qualities were discovered by Rohlfs around 1919/1920. Utilised in an artistically experimental manner, they were to impressively define his late work.