Details

Löffler 1947/25.

Provenance:

Studio/estate of the artist;

Galerie Schrade, Schloss Mochental and Karlsruhe;

Privately owned, Baden-Württemberg, acquired from the aforementioned in 1978.

Description

The iris appears several times in Otto Dix’s oeuvre: in 1912, he executed a work, now in the Kupferstichkabinett Dresden, which naturalistically shows a hand full of purple iris blossoms against a yellow background. In 1933, Dix painted the portrait of Tamara Danischewski. This painting, now on display at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, shows the dancer with a single white iris in her hands. In 1947, the artist returned to the motif of the iris. In the years following the war, his works repeatedly returned to motifs from before the Nazi era and the experiences associated with it.

A dense bunch of white irises stands in a dark blue pot, with a colourfully patterned blanket lying on the table in front of it. The base and background are roughly executed; overall, the painting captivates with its dry application of colour and the sometimes rough yet animated brushstroke. Dix even sketches the ceiling, which has no depth and appears to be almost flat on the canvas. The irises, on the other hand, are the focus of his attention. He portrays the cluster of flowers delicately, almost translucently, alternating between areas of colour and the finest lines. Where he keeps the lower part of the picture in earthy tones, this changes upwards into light and bright colours. In this extremely high-quality work from his mature phase, Dix succeeds in creating the summery atmosphere of a fresh bouquet that seems to have been placed there at random.