(Dresden 1897–1977 Berlin)
Herbstblumen mit Katze II ‘Katze liegend’ (Autumn flowers with cat II), 1922, signed, dated Felixmüller 1922 and again signed, dated and numbered No 296 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 90.5 x 75 cm, framed

Photo certificate with separate certificate
Titus Felixmüller, Hamburg, November 1987

Provenance:
Heinrich Kirchhoff Collection, Wiesbaden, Autumn 1926 -
directly from the artist
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, 35. Auktion Moderne Kunst, 20 and 21 May 1960, lot 130
Private Collection, Switzerland
Galerie Blaeser, Düsseldorf;
Private Collection, Essen
Galerie Neher, Essen (Gallery label on the stretcher) - acquired there in 1987 by the present owner
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia

Exhibited:
Dresden 1923, Künstlervereinigung Dresden cat. no 111
Bielefeld 1924, “Felixmüller und Böckstiegel”, cat. no. 31
Zurich 1925, “Internationale Kunstausstellung”, Kunsthaus Zurich, cat. no. 142
Stuttgart 1925, Kunsthaus L. Schaller, Conrad Felixmüller- Sonderausstellung, cat. no. 7
Wiesbaden 1926, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Neues Museum Wiesbaden, Conrad Felixmüller cat. no. 4
Essen 1988, Galerie Neher, p. 28–29 (col. ill.)
Dresden/Hannover 1997, Conrad Felixmüller, Die Dresdner Jahre 1910–1934, p. 94 (col. ill)

Literature:
Exhibition catalogue Galerie Neher, Essen, Blickpunkte Deutscher Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert, 1988
Spielmann Heinz (ed.), Conrad Felixmüller, Monographie und Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Cologne 1996, p. 244, no. 296, colour plate no. 37
Krempel, Ulrich (ed.), Conrad Felixmüller, Die Dresdner Jahre 1910–1934, Cologne 1997

We are very grateful to the curators of the exhibition in Museum Wiesbaden “Der Garten der Avantgarde, Heinrich Kirchhoff-Ein Sammler von Jawlensky, Klee, Nolde...”,for their kind support.

We already received a loan request for the present painting from the Museum Wiesbaden, on the occasion of the planned exhibition „Der Garten der Avantgarde, Heinrich Kirchhoff – Ein Sammler von Jawlensky, Klee, Nolde...“ [The Garden of the Avantgarde, Heinrich Kirchhoff – a Collector of Jawlensky, Klee, Nolde....] from 27 October 2017 – 24 February 2018:
„Ultimately Kirchhoff acquired the impressive painting ‘Herbstblumen mit Katze II’ [Autumn flowers with Cat II] in exchange for three early works by the artist, which he returned. Felixmüller was able to change his patron’s mind. The work with its powerful colours remained in the family for the longest.
The beautiful painting on the one hand provides testimony to this particular relationship between artist and patron, while at the same time it stands at a decisive turning point in the development of the collection and therefore it will be a key witness in the exhibition for this collection, which today has been broadly dispersed. The picture would be a major work in our exhibition and it is therefore naturally of great importance for the project.“
(Dr. Alexander Klar, Director, Museum Wiesbaden).

The colourful painting by Conrad Felixmüller, “Herbstblumen mit Katze II” [Autumn Flowers with Cat II] was acquired by Felixmüller‘s great patron Heinrich Kirchhoff in the autumn of 1926 in exchange for three early works by the artist. The artist‘s change in painting style, the turning away from Expressionism and Cubism and his own attempt at something new, makes the painting one of the most important works in the collection of Heinrich Kirchhoff at that time. The still life is one of the few works of the 1920s by Conrad Felixmüller in which he does not devote himself to the human figure as the protagonist, and in it his orientation towards a new, altered naturalism is made particularly apparent.
Individual flower heads in a luminous atmosphere generate an intensively colourful image. The spectrum of the blossoms extends from vibrant yellow to various tones of orange and red; the cool colours of the tablecloth are balanced by an insubstantial general tone which describes the end of the table in the room lying behind it, thereby lending depth to the still life.
Diagonal elements of the composition such as the folds of the tablecloth and the implied edges of the table, compartmentalized angular distortions of form that result from an involvement with Cubism, as well as a restless treatment of light, are employed as artistic means in order to attain a dense connection between the foreground and background.
As a contrast to this external, formal tension there is a calming element in the handling of the picture:
taking advantage of the moment, a small black cat has sought out its place on the tablecloth to rest, curled up, for a while. Grouped together in a narrow space and rendered in concise pictorial sections, the closeness of the represented motifs allows a palpably tense nexus of proximity and distance. In the midst of the subdued, glowing yellow and red tones, which surround it like a protective cover, the dozing cat appears to be moved closer to the viewer while at the same time strangely distant. This animal projects no sense of aggression, just as the entire pictorial composition is a well-composed consonance in which the objects represented, in the stylisation that they experience, are juxtaposed as equals.
The multifaceted motif of the cat was defined by artists in the 1920s with striking frequency as a magical-mystical creature, or also as a widespread symbol of woman. With this still life, Felixmüller evokes a moment of harmony and creates a thoroughly romantically informed, timeless idyll of the domestic world full of subtle magic, embodied in the representation of the little cat.

Photo certificate with separate certificate
Titus Felixmüller, Hamburg, November 1987

Provenance:
Collection Heinrich Kirchhoff, Wiesbaden, Autumn 1926 -
directly from the artist
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, 35. Auktion Moderne Kunst, 20. und 21. Mai 1960, Lot 130
Private Collection, Switzerland
Galerie Blaeser, Düsseldorf;
Private Collection, Essen
Galerie Neher, Essen (Gallery label on the stretcher) - aquired there in 1987 by the present owner
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia

Exhibited:
Dresden 1923, Künstlervereinigung Dresden cat. no 111
Bielefeld 1924, “Felixmüller und Böckstiegel”, cat. no. 31
Zurich 1925, “Internationale Kunstausstellung”, Kunsthaus Zurich, cat. no. 142
Stuttgart 1925, Kunsthaus L. Schaller, Conrad Felixmüller- Sonderausstellung, cat. no. 7
Wiesbaden 1926, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Neues Museum Wiesbaden, Conrad Felixmüller cat. no. 4
Essen 1988, Galerie Neher, p. 28–29 (col. ill.)
Dresden/Hannover 1997, Conrad Felixmüller, Die Dresdner Jahre 1910–1934, p. 94 (col. ill)

Literature:
Exhibition catalogue Galerie Neher, Essen, Blickpunkte Deutscher Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert, 1988
Spielmann Heinz (ed.), Conrad Felixmüller, Monographie und Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Cologne 1996, p. 244, no. 296, colour plate no. 37
Krempel, Ulrich (ed.), Conrad Felixmüller, Die Dresdner Jahre 1910–1934, Cologne 1997

We are very grateful to the curators of the exhibition in Museum Wiesbaden “Der Garten der Avantgarde, Heinrich Kirchhoff-Ein Sammler von Jawlensky, Klee, Nolde...”,for their kind support.

We already received a loan request for the present painting from the Museum Wiesbaden, on the occasion of the planned exhibition „Der Garten der Avantgarde, Heinrich Kirchhoff – Ein Sammler von Jawlensky, Klee, Nolde...“ [The Garden of the Avantgarde, Heinrich Kirchhoff – a Collector of Jawlensky, Klee, Nolde....] from 27 October 2017 – 24 February 2018:
„Ultimately Kirchhoff acquired the impressive painting ‘Herbstblumen mit Katze II’ [Autumn flowers with Cat II] in exchange for three early works by the artist, which he returned. Felixmüller was able to change his patron’s mind. The work with its powerful colours remained in the family for the longest.
The beautiful painting on the one hand provides testimony to this particular relationship between artist and patron, while at the same time it stands at a decisive turning point in the development of the collection and therefore it will be a key witness in the exhibition for this collection, which today has been broadly dispersed. The picture would be a major work in our exhibition and it is therefore naturally of great importance for the project.“
(Dr. Alexander Klar, Director, Museum Wiesbaden).

The colourful painting by Conrad Felixmüller, “Herbstblumen mit Katze II” [Autumn Flowers with Cat II] was acquired by Felixmüller‘s great patron Heinrich Kirchhoff in the autumn of 1926 in exchange for three early works by the artist. The artist‘s change in painting style, the turning away from Expressionism and Cubism and his own attempt at something new, makes the painting one of the most important works in the collection of Heinrich Kirchhoff at that time. The still life is one of the few works of the 1920s by Conrad Felixmüller in which he does not devote himself to the human figure as the protagonist, and in it his orientation towards a new, altered naturalism is made particularly apparent.
Individual flower heads in a luminous atmosphere generate an intensively colourful image. The spectrum of the blossoms extends from vibrant yellow to various tones of orange and red; the cool colours of the tablecloth are balanced by an insubstantial general tone which describes the end of the table in the room lying behind it, thereby lending depth to the still life.
Diagonal elements of the composition such as the folds of the tablecloth and the implied edges of the table, compartmentalized angular distortions of form that result from an involvement with Cubism, as well as a restless treatment of light, are employed as artistic means in order to attain a dense connection between the foreground and background.
As a contrast to this external, formal tension there is a calming element in the handling of the picture:
taking advantage of the moment, a small black cat has sought out its place on the tablecloth to rest, curled up, for a while. Grouped together in a narrow space and rendered in concise pictorial sections, the closeness of the represented motifs allows a palpably tense nexus of proximity and distance. In the midst of the subdued, glowing yellow and red tones, which surround it like a protective cover, the dozing cat appears to be moved closer to the viewer while at the same time strangely distant. This animal projects no sense of aggression, just as the entire pictorial composition is a well-composed consonance in which the objects represented, in the stylisation that they experience, are juxtaposed as equals.
The multifaceted motif of the cat was defined by artists in the 1920s with striking frequency as a magical-mystical creature, or also as a widespread symbol of woman. With this still life, Felixmüller evokes a moment of harmony and creates a thoroughly romantically informed, timeless idyll of the domestic world full of subtle magic, embodied in the representation of the little cat.