Vase of poppies

Details

Inscribed once more with the work number and inscribed “Kon. 1/7” on a small label on the reverse. A confirmation of authenticity has been requested from the Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung. The confirmation was not yet available at the time of the publishing of this catalogue. Provenance: The artist’s estate, with stamp on the reverse (not in Lugt);Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Foundation, Munich; Schlot Ahlden, Ahlden 9.5.2021, lot 1732; private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Description

• The work derives its appeal from the many and varied tones of red used for the flowers
• The mature artist achieves a masterfully balanced harmony of composition and colour
• An example of Münter’s quieter style used in the few pictures dating from the 1930s/40s
In addition to portraits, the artist mainly painted flowers during this time in a folksy realist style. Münter was interested in rural art and traditional handicrafts from an early age. In her house in Murnau she collected numerous objects from this area: glazed jugs and vases, Madonna figures and reverse glass paintings. These objects can be found again and again in her work, especially now that the choice of motifs was dwindling. In this work, a lush bouquet emerges from a blue vase. The clearly defined fields of colour are reminiscent of traditional reverse glass painting. Kandinsky once characterized the artist’s understanding of colour as “a simple harmony of its own, consisting of a few, without exception, serious colours.” Here the colours achieve their own power, which strives outward through the arrangement of the flowers and threatens to burst out of the picture frame.