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Lot Essay
'They are such calm and beautiful hours when one sits or moves about between the fragrant and blossoming flowers; I really wish to give my pictures something of this beauty.'
Emil Nolde quoted in Emil Nolde: My Garden Full of Flowers, exh. cat., Cologne, 2009, pp. 23-24.
Emil Nolde was one of the pioneering artists experimenting with watercolour during the first half of the 20th century. Providing him with almost unlimited creative freedom, the medium allowed him to create works that sit on the verge between figuration and abstraction.
The present work features one of the artist’s most beloved themes. Intrinsically tied to the memories of his childhood home, flowers reminded Nolde of joyous moments, at a time when he was banned from painting by the Nazi regime. Moreover, Nolde was particularly interested in flowers’ symbolism. To his mind, they were a vivid example of the eternal cycle of birth, life and death that underpinned nature. Entranced by their beauty, yet aware of their transience and ephemerality, Nolde saw these blooms as the romantic, almost tragic symbol of life itself: 'The blossoming colors of the flowers and the purity of these colors; I loved them so very much. I loved the flowers in the context of their destiny: shooting up, blossoming, glowing, pleasing, sloping down, fading, and ending up cast in the pit. Our human destiny is not always as consequent or beautiful' (quoted in ibid., p. 24).
Emil Nolde quoted in Emil Nolde: My Garden Full of Flowers, exh. cat., Cologne, 2009, pp. 23-24.
Emil Nolde was one of the pioneering artists experimenting with watercolour during the first half of the 20th century. Providing him with almost unlimited creative freedom, the medium allowed him to create works that sit on the verge between figuration and abstraction.
The present work features one of the artist’s most beloved themes. Intrinsically tied to the memories of his childhood home, flowers reminded Nolde of joyous moments, at a time when he was banned from painting by the Nazi regime. Moreover, Nolde was particularly interested in flowers’ symbolism. To his mind, they were a vivid example of the eternal cycle of birth, life and death that underpinned nature. Entranced by their beauty, yet aware of their transience and ephemerality, Nolde saw these blooms as the romantic, almost tragic symbol of life itself: 'The blossoming colors of the flowers and the purity of these colors; I loved them so very much. I loved the flowers in the context of their destiny: shooting up, blossoming, glowing, pleasing, sloping down, fading, and ending up cast in the pit. Our human destiny is not always as consequent or beautiful' (quoted in ibid., p. 24).