Feuerlilien und dunkler Rittersporn

In 1906 Emil Nolde began his series of flower still lifes, which extend throughout his entire late period. The most famous of these are his watercolors of tulips and poppies, sunflowers and roses in intense colors. This focus on color, contrast, and arrangement can also be found in his works in oil.

In »Tiger Lilies and Dark Larkspur«, the Expressionist artist elevates color itself to the role of main protagonist, laying the different flowers like a carpet across the entire picture surface so that it is no longer possible to distinguish between background and foreground. Nolde thus annuls the depth of space and emphasizes the surface instead—in his close-ups of flowers it is color that becomes the painting’s essential expressive medium.

Bold, broad brushstrokes and pulsating contrasts intensify the power of this floral still life, which only summarily depicts the forms of the blooms within the sea of color. Nolde was quite clearly far more interested in color as a means of pictorial expression than in pursuing a precise, detailed imitation of nature.