Takken met bloesem van een rhododendron 'Alice' c. 1900 - 1930

Richard Tepe captured these rhododendron blossoms sometime in his lifetime between 1864 and 1952. The sepia tone gives it a painterly quality, like an old master drawing rendered with light, but in reverse, dark becoming light. You can almost smell the dark room. The blooms are these big, fluffy clouds, practically leaping off the paper, and the leaves are like dark anchors holding them in place. Look at how the light catches the edges of those petals, it's so delicate and gentle. It feels like Tepe was trying to capture not just the look of the flowers, but their very essence, their fleeting beauty. It’s all so soft, a bit like the early work of someone like Gerhard Richter, who also explored photography as painting, and vice versa. There’s a real sense of observation and feeling. A reminder that even something as simple as a flower can be a world of its own.