Vase of poppies

Details

On the reverse again with the work number and inscribed “Kon. 1/7” on a small label.

With a confirmation from Dr Isabelle Jansen, Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich, dated 15 Nov. 2023. The work is registered in the artist’s estate under the number Kon. 1/7.

Provenance:
The artist’s estate, on the reverse with the stamp (not in Lugt);
Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich;
Schloss Ahlden, Ahlden 9 May 2021, lot 1732;
Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Descrizione

• The work thrives on the numerous and varied shades of red in the flowers
• The mature artist achieves a masterfully balanced harmony of composition and colour
• An example of Münter’s calmer style in the 1930s/40s

Retired in Murnau and in the increasing isolation of the war years, Münter painted few pictures. In addition to portraits, she now mainly created flower paintings, often in a folk-realist style. Rural art and traditional handicrafts interested Münter from an early age. In her house in Murnau, she collected numerous objects from this field: glazed jugs and vases, Madonna figures and reverse glass paintings. These objects can be found again and again in her work, but especially in this phase.

In the work offered here, the lavish bouquet of flowers emerges from a blue vase. The clear colour fields are reminiscent of traditional reverse glass painting. Kandinsky once characterised 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 a power of their own, which strives outwards through the arrangement of the flowers and threatens to burst the picture frame.