Heroic Roses

Heroic Roses or Heroische Rosen its native name, is in the Expressionism style, abstract Genre

Paul Klee was a Swiss - German artist who was well known for his highly-individualised styles. He excelled and influenced many art movements including Expressionism, Surrealism, and Cubism.

Paul Klee started studying art in 1898 and first started exhibiting in the early 1910s. Heroic Roses is one of Klee’s much later paintings and wasn’t created until 1938 just 2 years prior to his death in 1940.

The painting is oil based on Canvas and depicts 3 abstract red roses on a muted Green and Blue background, for an oil painting the colours are quite pale and the brush strokes visible almost give the illusion of it being a wax medium or even a sketch.

The surrounding shapes could be analysed for hours and many scholars have found their own meanings and subjects in them, the more you look at it the more possibilities you find.

Although the colours are muted compared to other famous works of the expressionism period they are bright for Paul Klee who had always struggled with colour composition and was by no means a natural in this area. His mystical-abstract works of the late 1910s where much less vibrant than this works.

Other works released in the same period as Heroic roses include:

Die Vase which is an abstract oil on Jute depicting a vase in Grey, Blue and Orange, quite a modern colour palette which would be more popular now than it may have been in the late 30s.

Insula Dulcamara which is an oil colour and coloured paste, on newsprint on Jute, on stretched frame. This is considered one of Klee’s greatest master pieced. Although very abstract it depicts the coast lines and idols of a tropical Island, there is a ship in the distance and the promise of impending tragedy. It was suggested this piece should be called Calypso’s Island but Klee’s thought this was to obvious a title.

If you would like to see Historic Roses in person you can do so at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf Germany.