Cleveland Museum of Art

Lilac

Philipp Otto Runge

Date

1800–1805

Medium

Silhouette cut from off-white laid paper mounted to modern blue laid paper

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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. Plants and landscape were one of Philipp Otto Runge’s favorite subjects and he once wrote “Is there not then in this new art—call it landscape if you like—a highest point to be achieved?”

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