Lilac

Download2072 × 3400 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Philipp Otto Runge (German, 1777–1810)
Medium: Silhouette cut from off-white laid paper mounted to modern blue laid paper
Size: Sheet: 39.4 x 27 cm (15 1/2 x 10 5/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.)
Culture: Germany
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Lilac belongs to a series of cut-out silhouettes created by Philipp Otto Runge around the early 1800s. Each presents a plant or flower in exacting detail, including each petal and leaf. The technique used was a traditional folk practice, which Runge learned early on from his mother. He ultimately produced well over one hundred such works, which he occasionally gave as gifts; this work, for example, was offered by the artist to the Specktors, a Hamburg based family of artists.