Picture "Child (The Mishap)" (1936) (Unique piece)
Picture "Child (The Mishap)" (1936) (Unique piece)
Quick info
unique piece | monogrammed | dated | tempera on paper | framed | size 63 x 43 cm
Detailed description
Picture "Child (The Mishap)" (1936) (Unique piece)
The sketch "Child (The Mishap)" offered here belongs to Christian Rohlfs' late work, dating from the years 1927 until his death in 1938. It also stylistically reflects the painter’s approach typical for his final decade. From Realism and Impressionism to Expressionism, his path led to an individual style of his old age, which represents the artistic summary of his long life as a painter.
Tempera on paper, 1936, monogrammed and dated. Catalogue raisonné Utermann 213, Vogt 150. Motif size/sheet size 22 x 24.9 cm. Size in frame 63 x 43 cm as shown.
Producer: ARTES Kunsthandelsgesellschaft mbH, Bödekerstraße 13, 30161 Hannover, Deutschland, E-Mail: [email protected]
About Christian Rohlfs
1849-1938
The painter and graphic artist Christian Rohlfs was born in Niendorf in rural Holstein in the district of Segeberg in 1849. In 1864 he fell from a tree and injured his leg severely. The attending physician prescribed bed rest for the young Christian, and during his recovery, he passed the time with long drawing exercises. The boy's talent as a painter soon became apparent and was from then on also encouraged.
From 1870 Rohlfs studied at the renowned Grand Ducal Saxon School of Art in Weimar. Before he was appointed director of a painting school at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen by Karl Ernst Osthaus in 1901, he worked as a freelance artist in Weimar.
The painterly oeuvre of Christian Rohlfs is characterised by a wide variety of tendencies and influences and was always in a state of change. In his Weimar period, for example, the artist still followed the tradition of a classical landscape painter who was committed to realism and naturalistic academic painting. Before Rohlfs turned to the emerging but still ostracised Expressionism around 1906, he worked in a style oriented towards Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in the years around the turn of the century. In 1911 he joined the artists' association of the "Berliner Secession", and from 1914, he was a member of the group of the "Freie Secession".
On the occasion of his 75th birthday, Rohlfs was honoured with a membership of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.
The artist died in 1938.
Depiction of typical scenes from daily life in painting, with distinctions between rural, bourgeois, and courtly genres.
The genre reached its peak and immense popularity in Dutch paintings of the 17th century. In the 18th century, especially in France, the courtly and gallant painting became prominent, while in Germany, a more bourgeois character developed.
A one-of-a-kind or unique piece is a work of art personally created by the artist. It exists only once due to the type of production (oil painting, watercolour, drawing, lost-wax sculpture etc.).
In addition to the classic unique pieces, there are also the so-called "serial unique pieces". They present a series of works with the same colour, motif and technique, manually prepared by the same artist. The serial unique pieces are rooted in "serial art", a genre of modern art that aims to create an aesthetic effect through series, repetitions, and variations of the same objects or themes or a system of constant and variable elements or principles.
The historical starting point is considered to be Claude Monet's "Les Meules" (1890/1891), where, for the first time, a series was created that went beyond a mere group of works. The other artists, who addressed to the serial art, include Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and above all Gerhard Richter.