Lot 66 Dα

“Paint more things like decorative still lifes and delicacies – i.e. lobsters and similarly tasty things. In the end, he will have to buy those from you!” Max Slevogt’s friend and mentor of many years, Karl Voll, addressed these words to the painter on 7 September 1900 to help make his early days in Berlin easier and facilitate his cooperation with the gallerist Paul Cassirer. Slevogt actually only created a small number of still lifes at the beginning of his career; it was not until around 1914/1915 that he shifted his attention to still life motifs found within the setting of his home.
Apart from Slevogt’s sometimes sumptuously provisioned kitchen still lifes, he also created numerous floral arrangements based, above all, on the works of Édouard Manet. The 1916 “Blumenstillleben mit Flieder und Amaryllis” offered here also borrows from Manet in terms of its composition and motif. Thus, for example, Slevogt has composed the bouquet, which consists of two lilac shoots and three amaryllis flowers, from directly in front of the motif with a neutral background and painted entirely in an alla prima technique. Slevogt’s rapid and confident application of the paint – sometimes in dashes, sometimes in dabs – emphasises the pictorial concept based on a direct impression. The selection of the wide-bellied glass vase also seems to have been a deliberate decision; after all, it forms the perfect counterweight to the voluminous forms of the blooms.