Lot 309 Dα

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.