659 - Karl Peter Röhl (1890, Kiel – 1975)

Karl Peter Röhl (1890, Kiel – 1975) Still Life with a Vase of Flowers and Apples Oil on canvas. (19)27. Approx. 60.5 x 96.5 cm. Signed and dated lower left. We thank the estate of Karl Peter Röhl for their assistance in cataloging this work. Karl Peter Röhl was one of the founding artists at the State Bauhaus in Weimar. His artistic roots, however, lie in representational painting: After completing an apprenticeship and attending the schools of applied arts in Kiel and Berlin, he studied at the Grand Ducal Saxon Art School in Weimar—under Albin Egger-Lienz, among others—and painted landscapes of his native Holstein. In Kiel, he founded the Expressionist Working Group with Werner Lange and Peter Drömmer, and his works from his early Bauhaus years were also influenced by Expressionism. In 1919, he designed the first Bauhaus logo, the so-called “little star man.” It was not until his encounter with Theo van Doesburg—who held his De Stijl course in Röhl’s Weimar studio in 1922—that he turned to pure abstraction. After years as a master student under Walther Klemm at the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts, he took over as director of the preparatory class at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 1926. During these years in Frankfurt, the versatility of Röhl’s work became apparent. Alongside strictly geometric compositions, he produced paintings in which he returned to representational subjects—to a visual world familiar to him from his Expressionist beginnings. The still life, one of the most traditional genres of painting, became for him a field in which he experimented with color, light, and composition with great painterly freedom. In landscape format, Röhl spreads out a long row of apples on a light-colored table, their deep red and warm orange colors masterfully distributed across the picture plane. In the center stands a dark vase with yellow and wilting flowers, whose fraying forms dissolve against a dynamic, blue-green background. A dark curtain at the left edge frames the scene and lends it depth, while the dynamic brushwork of the composition imparts a vibrant rhythm. Provenance: The artist’s estate; Private collection, Switzerland. Taxation: subject to regular taxation (VAT: Regular Taxation).