"Expressionist couple in yellow-green tones: a dancing woman on Lake Maggiore"

(1849 Niendorf – 1938 Hagen) Dancing Couple Expressionist, painted in dominant yellow and green tones, created in 1928, a work from the late period of Christian Rohlfs (1927–1938) at Lake Maggiore. The woman, facing the viewer, is depicted nude; the angular lines of the brushstrokes correspond to the ecstatic expression of a wild dance. The painting was created a year after Rohlfs spent a vacation at Lake Maggiore in 1927 and moved to Ticino, Switzerland. In the last decades of his life, Rohlfs managed to further refine his means of expression, so that his late works can be considered the culmination of his artistic career. He mainly painted flowers, landscapes, and cityscapes with great color intensity. The theme of dance permeates Rohlfs’ work ever since he became a representative of Expressionism in 1906. In a series of works created in 1927/28, to which the presented tempera belongs, he continued his earlier works with dance motifs from 1908 to 1913. They reflect his indomitable, undying joy of life even in old age. In the Weimar Republic, Rohlfs was a highly respected artist. In 1919, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, a major special exhibition was held in the National Gallery of Berlin, and in 1924 he was honored with membership in the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. In the “Third Reich,” Rohlfs was also among the modern artists condemned by the National Socialists as “unworthy.” Over 400 works were confiscated from German museums in 1937, he was banned from exhibiting, and on January 7, 1938, a day before his death, he was expelled from the Academy of Arts. Tempera with chalk overlays on canvas, signed and marked with monogram and date (19)28. Mentioned in the catalogue raisonné by von Vogt and Koke, No. 729. Provenance: German private collection; Hauswedell & Nolte Auction, Hamburg, 05.06.2013, lot 502; Collection of Professor Dr. Paul Vogt.