Emil Nolde - Weiße Lilien und Dahlien, ca.1930

 

EMIL NOLDE

Weiße Lilien und Dahlien, Um 1930.

Aquarell

Object description

White lilies and dahlias . Around 1930.
Watercolor.
Signed lower left. On Japan. 35 x 46.5 cm (13.7 x 18.3 in), the full sheet. [SM].

With a photo expertise from Prof. Dr. Manfred Reuther, Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation Seebüll, dated February 12, 2013.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Germany (acquired directly from the artist in 1932).

EXHIBITION: Emil Nolde, watercolors from Bielefeld's private collection, Städtisches Kunsthaus Bielefeld, 1967, No. 32.

essay

In Emil Nolde's painterly oeuvre, the watercolors can not only be seen as a supplement to the paintings. At times the artist works almost exclusively in watercolor, such as B. on his South Sea voyage, but also during the painting ban in the Third Reich and after 1951, when Nolde almost completely gave up oil painting because of a broken arm. Seen in this way, the watercolors in his oeuvre are an independent complex that deserves special attention. The lush flower garden around the studio house in Seebüll offers the painter enough inspiration: If he otherwise allows himself interpretational freedom, his flowers can usually be botanically identified precisely. But Nolde is neither a botanist nor a flower painter. He does not watercolors bouquets or still life-like arrangements. In the blaze of color of the blossoms, Nolde reflects the daring colors of his early paintings. He creates each flower anew out of the color and brings it into an exciting interrelationship with other flowers. The most varied of blossoms can be found in a composition and their color forms compete for the favor of an optical presence that cannot be made more forceful.