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1947. Oil on canvas. 65,5 x 90cm. Signed twice bottom left and top right: S.Rottluff. Framed.
Additionally signed and titled on stretcher: Schmidt-Rottluff "Philodendron und
Clivia". On the stretcher on the right the number(477). Bottom labeled:=gewachst=.

Provenance:
In possession of artist until his death in 1976
Private possession Cologne

Literature:
Catalogue raisonné Will Grohmann, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Stuttgart 1956, p. 276 (ill.).

In a certain sense 1947 meant a fresh start for Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After more than a decade of restrictions he had to bear due to the Nationalsocialist Regime and the war he moved to Berlin's west and accepts a professorship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste.
Even though teaching occupies much of his time he nevertheless devotes himself intensly to his creative work. Taking up his softly flowing style of 1930s he concentrates mainly on oil painting. Solely based on the colour he creates the composition in a way that allows the intense tones of the condensed colour fields to grow into main chords, contrasts and to harmonies.

That also applies to "Philodendron und Clivia": The plants stand very close to each other by the window. The curtain is partly drawn back so that balazing light penetrates the dark room. The painting is dominated by bright colours their radiance being enhanced by the strong contrast of light and dark. Between the two dominat tones, cool green and blue shades, the red of the Clivia blossom sets a warm accent. Through the layers of two dimensionally and rhythmically rendered colour zones, the colour scale which is not that close to nature and a simplified reproduction of objects Schmidt-Rottluff discovers a time-transcending, always valid way of representation which is even increased by a reinforced composition and rough monolithic forms.

As in his still lives of the 1930s and the early 1940s Schmidt-Rotltuff reflects his inner sensitivities. But they are different now. The description of the silent things surrounding him doesn't serve as a formula for his inner emigration anymore - which the recurrent motif of the closed window was a symbol of. Now he rather expresses his escape from isolation, his urge to enter the outer world which also implies his hope for a better quality of life. This can in particular be seen in the Philodedron's leaves which strive to the light and in the Clivia's unfolding blossom.