Lot Essay
Professor Dr Manfred Reuther of the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll has
confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Nolde's creative vision was firmly rooted in his beloved homeland of the Schleswig-Holstein region near the German-Danish border. His intensely felt bond with this narrow strip of flat land that lies between the North Sea and Baltic Sea was such that, although born Emil Hanson, in 1902 he took for his surname 'Nolde' - the name of his birthplace. Nolde would spend the majority of his life in this area, and its remote and expansive landscapes surrounding his homes at Utenwarf, and later at nearby Seebüll, formed the wellspring of his art. His watercolours depicting the boggy marshes, inundated pastures and lonely Frisian farmsteads exposed to the region's dramatic weather systems are highly evocative, and are charged with emotional and spiritual resonances much in the tradition of Northern Romantic painting. 'I coalesced with the clouds and moods of the native region,' Nolde wrote in a telling passage in his autobiography (E. Nolde, Welt und Heimat, Cologne, 1965, p. 138). Through strident colours and simplified, almost abstract forms, Nolde revealed his mystical bond with-and transcendental experience of-this 'other-worldly corner of the country' (E. Nolde, Das eigene Leben, Berlin, 1931, p. 13).
confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Nolde's creative vision was firmly rooted in his beloved homeland of the Schleswig-Holstein region near the German-Danish border. His intensely felt bond with this narrow strip of flat land that lies between the North Sea and Baltic Sea was such that, although born Emil Hanson, in 1902 he took for his surname 'Nolde' - the name of his birthplace. Nolde would spend the majority of his life in this area, and its remote and expansive landscapes surrounding his homes at Utenwarf, and later at nearby Seebüll, formed the wellspring of his art. His watercolours depicting the boggy marshes, inundated pastures and lonely Frisian farmsteads exposed to the region's dramatic weather systems are highly evocative, and are charged with emotional and spiritual resonances much in the tradition of Northern Romantic painting. 'I coalesced with the clouds and moods of the native region,' Nolde wrote in a telling passage in his autobiography (E. Nolde, Welt und Heimat, Cologne, 1965, p. 138). Through strident colours and simplified, almost abstract forms, Nolde revealed his mystical bond with-and transcendental experience of-this 'other-worldly corner of the country' (E. Nolde, Das eigene Leben, Berlin, 1931, p. 13).