With his timeless, reserved and, at the same time, mysteriously graceful depictions of figures, Karl Hofer held one of the most significant artistic positions in German art of the 20th century. His mostly female protagonists are always depicted in a moment of an almost sculpted pause, displaying almost indefinable emotions and spiritual rapture, the cause of which viewers usually cannot fathom due to the lack of an explicit narrative in the painting.
In their distinctively sober clarity, well-ordered composition, and calm atmosphere, Hofer's paintings are closely related to the art of New Objectivity. Some of his works were displayed in the legendary " Neue Sachlichkeit" (New Objectivity) exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim in 1925.

In the portrait offered here, Hofer also shows the sitter - in the characteristic "Hofer style," with almond-shaped eyes, a pale complexion, and a tapered chin - at peace with herself, her gaze lowered and her hands resting in her lap. Does she not crack a slight smile on her lips? He moves the figure close to the front edge of the picture, but her gaze is averted, and she gives observers no chance to make eye contact. Moreover, why did Hofer always paint girls with flowers? As trivial as it may sound, the combination of woman and flower has always been an homage to women. Renaissance paintings of girls and women with flowers were mostly depictions of Flora - the goddess of vegetation in Roman mythology. They were portraits, accentuated with a few flowers as accessories and a playful, slightly erotic point, allowed only by this 'role representation.'
The painting presents itself as a play of contrasts: Hofer juxtaposes the intrinsic stillness of the picture, the introversion of the sitter, and her simple, high-collared clothing with the extremely bright, bold colors and almost jarring vibrancy of the bright bouquet of flowers. Her mature solemnity seems contradictory, given her youthful face and the long braided hair typical of a child. In addition, the artist sets high-contrast accents in intense cool blue and bright fresh green alongside intensely warm colors.
Through his characteristic formal reduction of the image to individual essential pictorial elements, modern motif elements such as the utterly void background devoid of reality, and the introversion of his figures, Hofer succeeded in developing his very own modern visual language and created a universally valid depiction of timeless aesthetics, the mood of which also found an echo in 21st-century audiences.

Karl Hofer was at the height of his artistic career when this work was created. He held a professorship for painting at the "Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst" in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and his works were already represented in almost 30 museum collections at the time. In 1924, the artist participated in the "International Exhibition of Paintings" at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, where he was appointed a jury member in 1927. From 1928, he was a member of the Berlin Secession board and served on the extended board of the "Deutscher Künstlerbund" (German Artists' Association). In 1929, he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts Senate. This career came to an abrupt end in June 1933. Hofer was suspended as a university teacher, and in 1937, more than 300 of his works were removed from public collections and museums as "degenerate art," nine of which were shown in the Munich exhibition "Degenerate Art." In 1943, aerial bombing destroyed the artist's Berlin studio and most of the paintings inside. [CH]