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Lot Essay
Emerging from a vivid backdrop – shades of blue, green, and gold ripple one atop the others – two women turn in the same direction. One, sitting cross-legged, her left hand on the knees, is wearing an elegant fur-lined yellow evening gown and sporting a very fashionable jet-black bob cut. Her companion, whose wild red hair flows over a speckled dress, is leaning on her, as if about to whisper some zestful secret to her girlfriend's ear. The scene is shrouded in glamour and mystery, feelings that are echoed in the enigmatic double portrait on the reverse of the sheet.
Between 1931 and 1935, Nolde created a series of watercolours, which he named Phantasien, where he conjured a world inhabited by bizarre creatures, mysterious figures, and stories from German folklore. Almost all these watercolours are figurative, and resemble illustrations of some invented story-line, spawned as they were from the artist's fertile imagination. Belonging to this group, the present work is one of a prime examples of the artist’s mastery of the medium. Letting chance guide his imagination, Nolde makes wet paint flow over wet paper, a technique known as ‘wet on wet’ that he pioneered early in his career. The result are spontaneous, evocative images emerging from the iridescent surface in fluid, transparent colours. This fantastical, almost grotesque atmosphere is one of the main traits of Nolde’s oeuvre, and puts him alongside artists such as Goya and Ensor, whose bizarre visions deeply influenced art history.
Between 1931 and 1935, Nolde created a series of watercolours, which he named Phantasien, where he conjured a world inhabited by bizarre creatures, mysterious figures, and stories from German folklore. Almost all these watercolours are figurative, and resemble illustrations of some invented story-line, spawned as they were from the artist's fertile imagination. Belonging to this group, the present work is one of a prime examples of the artist’s mastery of the medium. Letting chance guide his imagination, Nolde makes wet paint flow over wet paper, a technique known as ‘wet on wet’ that he pioneered early in his career. The result are spontaneous, evocative images emerging from the iridescent surface in fluid, transparent colours. This fantastical, almost grotesque atmosphere is one of the main traits of Nolde’s oeuvre, and puts him alongside artists such as Goya and Ensor, whose bizarre visions deeply influenced art history.