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Lot Essay
Professor Dr Manfred Reuther of the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Throughout his life, Nolde explored in his oils, watercolours and prints what he termed the 'enchanting, unbelievably rich world of fantasy' (E. Nolde, quoted in P. Vergo & F. Lunn, Emil Nolde, exh. cat., London, 1996, p. 42). In this, he was perhaps inspired by the works of such artists as Francisco de Goya, Odilon Redon and his near-contemporary, Alfred Kubin. Between 1931 and 1935, Nolde gave free rein to his visionary imagination, executing a sequence of important, large-format watercolours known as the 'Phantasien' series. He conjured up bizarre hybrid-creatures, ghost-like apparitions and myriad figures, frequently women, evoking the vernacular sea-stories, fairy tales and sagas he had been familiar with from his youth. In a letter of 1932, Nolde referred to these otherworldly works as possessing 'a particular beauty of a level I have never before attained' (quoted in Emil Nolde, exh. cat., Lugano, 1994, p. 262). The phantasmagorical subjects of these jewel-like watercolours likewise have their origins in the drawings and print cycles that he created in the earlier part of his career. In motif, medium and technique, however, they also prefigure many of the works in his celebrated group of over 1,300 watercolours known as the 'Unpainted Pictures', which depict an almost infinite universe of magic and fantasy.
Throughout his life, Nolde explored in his oils, watercolours and prints what he termed the 'enchanting, unbelievably rich world of fantasy' (E. Nolde, quoted in P. Vergo & F. Lunn, Emil Nolde, exh. cat., London, 1996, p. 42). In this, he was perhaps inspired by the works of such artists as Francisco de Goya, Odilon Redon and his near-contemporary, Alfred Kubin. Between 1931 and 1935, Nolde gave free rein to his visionary imagination, executing a sequence of important, large-format watercolours known as the 'Phantasien' series. He conjured up bizarre hybrid-creatures, ghost-like apparitions and myriad figures, frequently women, evoking the vernacular sea-stories, fairy tales and sagas he had been familiar with from his youth. In a letter of 1932, Nolde referred to these otherworldly works as possessing 'a particular beauty of a level I have never before attained' (quoted in Emil Nolde, exh. cat., Lugano, 1994, p. 262). The phantasmagorical subjects of these jewel-like watercolours likewise have their origins in the drawings and print cycles that he created in the earlier part of his career. In motif, medium and technique, however, they also prefigure many of the works in his celebrated group of over 1,300 watercolours known as the 'Unpainted Pictures', which depict an almost infinite universe of magic and fantasy.