The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 23, 2025

Lilac

1800–1805

Philipp Otto Runge

(German, 1777–1810)
Germany
Silhouette cut from off-white laid paper mounted to modern blue laid paper
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.)
John L. Severance Fund 2023.120
Catalogue raisonné: Richter 144
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

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?”

Description

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.
  • c.1805
    Philipp Otto Runge (the artist) [1777–1810]
    c. 1820-late 1880s
    Collection of the Hamburg artist family Speckter (directly from Philipp Otto Runge)
    June 1, 2023
    (Villa Griesbach, Berlin, Germany), sold to C.G. Boerner, New York, NY
    2023
    (C.G. Boerner, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 11, 2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Richter, Cornelia. Philipp Otto Runge: Ich weiβ eine schöne Blume, Werkverzeichnis der Scherenschnitte (Munich: Schirmer, 1981). Mentioned and reproduced: p. 131, no. 144.
    Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Grisebach, 2023). Mentioned and reproduced: no. 144.
  • {{cite web|title=Lilac|url=false|author=Philipp Otto Runge|year=1800–1805|access-date=23 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.120