Christian Rohlfs - Gelbe Tulpen II - image-1

Lot 681 Dα

Christian Rohlfs - Gelbe Tulpen II

Auction 1013 - overview Cologne
25.05.2013, 11:30 - Modern Art May 25 2013
Estimate: 25.000 € - 35.000 €
Result: u. R.26.840 € (incl. premium)

Christian Rohlfs

Gelbe Tulpen II
1926

Wassertempera auf Aquarellbütten 50,4 x 69,9 cm CR 26

Christian Rohlfs has chosen to crop this depiction of a still life of tulips in an unusual way. The modest bouquet fills the entire pictorial space of this large sheet in landscape format, even extending beyond its lateral edges. The composition is decentred. The view of the observer is drawn along the radiating arches of the stems and hanging leaves, away from the centre of the composition and towards the periphery of the sheet, where the tulip flowers in full bloom droop heavily. The still life thus lacks the character of an arrangement. It takes the form of a seemingly unstaged, direct excerpt from reality and depicts the flowers in their natural, already somewhat wilted, beauty. The background has been textured in tones of blue and brown, but remains indistinct, in order to allow the luminosity of the flowers, which Rohlfs has executed in broad, glazed brush strokes, to be fully appreciated.

"With the abundance of works on paper that Rohlfs, regardless of his age, executed with ever-increasing creative power, the number of paintings slowly diminished. It is apparent that painting in tempera on canvas did not offer him that immaterial intensity of colour, that radiance, that he envisaged as a means to realise his visions of an existence delighting to the eyes. [...] In their vivacious colourfulness, it is particularly the works of the twenties that strike us as simultaneously vibrant and stern. They are seen as a close-up, and in spite of their richness of feeling, they display a palpable reserve in their emotionality …" (Paul Vogt, Christian Rohlfs: 1849-1938; Aquarelle, Wassertemperablätter, Zeichnungen, Recklinghausen 1988, p. 66).

Certificate

With an expertise from the Christian Rohlfs Archive, Hagen, dated 25 March 2013. The work will be included in the archive under no. CRA 73/13.

Provenance

Private collection, Rhineland