913 - Erich Krueger, Floral Still Life with Red Poinsettias

Erich Krueger, Floral Still Life with Red Poinsettias Oil on hardboard, signed lower left, four fully opened poinsettias fill the picture surface, the bracts in brilliant vermilion and deep carmine red, the yellow fruiting heads strongly set, beneath them large grey-green leaves in a cool tone, the ground laid in short, transversely guided strokes of grey, olive and white, good condition commensurate with age, image 49.5x39.5 cm (HxW), framed in a linen-covered moulding with gilt inner edge, frame width 3.5 cm The poinsettia came to Europe from Central America in the 19th century and became a widespread winter houseplant only in the 1950s. As a pictorial motif it accordingly appears late in German still life painting. Here Erich Krueger uses the contrast of brilliant red and cool grey-green to lift the blossoms out of a deliberately restrained setting.