Lot 308 Dα

Here, in a beautiful example of expressive painting, we find a floral still life - a subject that became particularly prevalent again in the art of the 1920s. Informed by Cubism in terms of its formal aesthetic and with an expressive application of colour, it nonetheless startles no one through radical modernisms. The picture plane and pictured space are interwoven in an almost ideal manner in the nearly square format, and the motif develops its own energy through a subtle emphasis on diagonals. The heavy sunflowers' jagged flower heads bend downward and their literally radiant colour holds them in place within the foliage full of elegant curvilinear forms; the background displays dynamic, counterbalanced chiaroscuro contrasts that merge with the composition in an almost classical manner.
Adolf de Haer, who died in a military hospital in 1944, studied at Düsseldorf's school of applied arts and, in 1917, under Adolf Hölzel in Stuttgart. In 1919/1920 he was among the founding members of the “Junges Rheinland”. He contributed Expressionist graphic works early on to the “Aktivistenbund 1919” and found his first important opportunities to exhibit his art in the Graphisches Kabinett of Dr Hans Koch and at “Ey”, the gallery of art dealer Johanna Ey, whom he portrayed in 1923.