La Florista - Peter Robert Keil - 1970s

A vibrant circa 1970s figurative work by German artist Peter Robert Keil (b. 1942), depicting a dramatically stylized female figure rendered in an exuberant palette of emerald green, cobalt blue, yellow, orange and crimson.

In contrast to Keil’s more restrained monochromatic portraits, this work demonstrates the artist’s remarkable use of colour. The sitter is constructed through energetic, heavily outlined passages of paint, with oversized blue eyes, vivid red lips and fragmented planes of colour lending the composition an unmistakably modernist character. A large red flower tucked into the sitter’s hair and a jewel-like floral necklace introduce an especially decorative quality.

Keil developed his artistic language within the postwar European art world. Otto Nagel was an important early mentor, while Keil’s formative circle included artists such as Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Eugen Schönebeck and Joachim Schmettau. During extended periods in Mallorca, Keil also became acquainted with Joan Miró, whose freedom of line, colour and intuitive approach to composition became an important influence. Keil’s own biographical accounts additionally describe encounters with Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, artists whose work contributed to the broader modernist environment surrounding his development.

By the 1970s, Keil had established the highly expressive figurative vocabulary for which he became best known. Portraits and figures were increasingly transformed through rapid brushwork, exaggerated features and intensely saturated colour. The influence of European Expressionism and Cubism is readily apparent, yet Keil’s spontaneous handling of paint gives the work a distinctly personal energy.

This example is particularly compelling for its jewel-like palette and decorative presence. Against the saturated green ground, the sitter’s face emerges through overlapping areas of blue, white, yellow and red, while the visible brushwork gives the surface a wonderfully immediate quality.

Signed by the artist at the lower right.

The painting is presented in a giltwood frame, its warm gold finish providing an elegant counterpoint to the saturated palette and giving the work a particularly strong presence on the wall.

Artist: Peter Robert Keil (German, b. 1942)
Title: La Florista
Period: Circa 1970s
Dimensions: 25.5” W × 30” H, framed
Frame: Giltwood
Signature: Signed lower right
Condition: Very good vintage condition, with minor wear consistent with age.