Red Currant
Philipp Otto Runge German
Having learned the art of the silhouette from his mother and his sister, Runge became a master of the medium, employing it as a formative part of his process. He produced silhouettes throughout his career as independent works of art, as decorative objects used for wall decorations, and as building blocks for his symbolic landscapes. Runge created more typical portrait silhouettes and small multi-figural vignettes but began to focus exclusively on flowers in the later part of his career in Hamburg. For Runge, flowers originated in Paradise and people could see themselves, their passions, and their characteristics in them. In this superb cutout, Runge represents an abstract idea through the scrupulous observation of the peculiarities of the currant species.
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