Lot 272 D

“The 'Tulpenstillleben' here was created in 1947, two years after bombs had destroyed Böckstiegel's studio and his flat in Dresden”, writes David Riedel in his confirmation. “The flames destroyed a large portion of his early work as well as the printing plates and wood blocks of his printmaking oeuvre. Having become homeless, he returned back to Werther and began his work all over again: in the new studio attached to his home, he initially created small-format still lifes of apples done in dark tones. Then, in 1947, Böckstiegel painted a large still life in which he combined objects from his earlier pictures and immersed them in an impasto and twinkling tonality that is surprising for those years: a bouquet of tulips, a plate with apples, a historical Bible and crutches may suggest that, from that year, Böckstiegel would once again strive to achieve an artistic reconnection with the work he had created before 1933. A 1947 still life of tulips had been known only from the artist's correspondence; it belonged to a family in Bielefeld and did not come to light until after the catalogue raisonné of his paintings had been printed. The large-format painting is a powerful example of Böckstiegel's little-known body of work from his final years.”