Still Life with Flowers

Jaan Grünberg’s oeuvre from the 1930s was created and remained mainly in Paris. His works were conspicuous and, according to his contemporaries, in great demand at the art galleries.  Monotype, which means applying an image onto paper via a glass surface, was Grünberg’s preferred technique. Oil paintings such as this were a much rarer occurrence.

Grünberg’s peculiar technique of covering the canvas emulates the fluidity which is characteristic of monotype. Various surfaces have not been created by dense brushstrokes, which was typical in Estonian art at the time, but rather by separate fields of colour, particularly in the background. In depicting the flowers, Grünberg has created an interesting rhythm through the alternation of large surfaces of colour and flickering lines.