Lot 268 D

This still life presents the full extent of Schmidt-Rottluff's mastery of pictorial composition and treatment of colour. He has grouped a tall and slender jug with three long-stemmed allium flowers, a thin-sided little porcelain bowl, a conical hand bell and a cult mask in front of a window providing a clear view of his garden and the neighbouring building. Schmidt-Rottluff often integrated exotic artefacts from his collection into his late still lifes, in particular. In this work there is an especially delightful harmony of extremely diverse forms, which are also particularly emphasised through the black contour lines. The slender, idiosyncratically formed onion flowers ascend above this group of art objects, which seem to come from every part of the world. The flowers provide the transition to the background, where the semi-abstract, pyramidal form of a building rises up behind the suggestion of a hedge. This shape establishes a formal and chromatic counterpoint to the dark tones of the still life and the dabbed green and blue tones of the garden.