Sunflowers, 1932

  • Emil Nolde, German, 1867-1956

Oil on canvas

  • Unframed: 29 × 35 inches (73.7 × 88.9 cm)
  • 35 1/2 × 41 3/4 × 3 inches (90.2 × 106 × 7.6 cm)

Gift of Robert H. Tannahill

54.460

On View

  • Modern N230.2

Department

European Modern Art to 1970

Signed, lower center: Emil Nolde

Inscribed, on verso across top of stretcher: Emil Nolde: Reife Sonnenblumen

1935-July 7, 1937, Nationalgalerie (Kronprinzenpalais), Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

July 7, 1937, confiscated by the German Reich (Deutsches Reich)/The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda), Berlin, Germany as “degenerate art [“Entartete Kunst,” no. 16130]

May 24, 1939, consigned to (Buch- und Kunsthandlung Karl Buchholz, Berlin, Germany)

by 1939, transferred to (Curt Valentin, Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York, USA)

1939-1940, purchased by Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA)

1940-1954, on long term loan from Robert H. Tannahill (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA) to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1954-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Bulletin of the DIA 35, 1 (1955-1956): pp. 17-18 (ill.). [incorrectly dated as 1923] Haftmann, W. Emil Nolde. Cologne, 1959, p. 111. Parini, L. "Emil Nolde at New York." Atre Figurativa 11, 63 (1963): p. 70 (ill.). Emil Nolde. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 1963, p. 83, no. 53 (pl. 46). Rosenblum, Robert. Modern Painting and the Northerm Romantic Tradition. New York, 1975, p. 136 (fig. 200). Uhr, Horst. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1982, p. 180 (ill.). Emil Nolde 1867-1956. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 2008, p. 279, no. 126 (ill.).

Emil Nolde, Sunflowers, 1932, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Robert H. Tannahill, 54.460.