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拍品专文
Emil Nolde’s powerfully evocative depictions of the landscape are among his most celebrated works. With richly expressive and intense colour, Wolken, painted in 1918, is a broodingly dramatic vision of the expansive skies and broad terrain of the German landscape. Areas of bright yellow burst through the clouds rendered in deep, opulent shades of purple, the exaggerated colours creating an expressive image of the essential forces of nature, of the grandeur and majesty of the landscape for which Nolde had a profound connection.
Although Nolde travelled widely throughout his life, his deep love for the natural beauty of his homeland served as a constant and profound artistic inspiration. Lying between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the swathe of land on the German and Danish border where Nolde was born and where he lived for much of his life was, ‘like a fairy tale to me…my wonderland from sea to sea’ (Nolde, quoted in '"My Homeland was like a Fairy Tale to Me" – On Emil Nolde’s Landscape Paintings', in Emil Nolde, My Wonderland from Sea to Sea, exh. cat., Cologne, 2008, p. 43). Born Emil Hansen, the artist took the name of his birthplace, Nolde, as his surname, a demonstration of his profound and ardent love for this area of northern Germany which would remain a constant throughout his career, providing the impetus for his expressive vistas that burst with colour.
In 1916, two years before Wolken was painted, Nolde and his wife Ada had moved to Utenwarf in northern Germany, near to where the artist had been born. Nolde described his love of the evocative landscape of Utenwarf; ‘I longed for the open air – for the keen, strong beauty that the west coast has in such abundance, with its wide sweep of sky and its clouds above marsh and water, especially in the harsh seasons of the year’ (Nolde, quoted in Emil Nolde, exh. cat., London, 1995-96, p. 69). Prone to turbulent weather conditions, this location provided Nolde with spectacular visions of windy, storm-laden skies and dramatic light, such as can be seen in Wolken.
A composition of boldly expressive colour, Wolken demonstrates Nolde’s profound love of vivid, intense colour, and his skill as a colourist. The flat terrain and open, expansive sky is expressed with planes and patches of thickly applied, richly glowing colour. It was Nolde’s ‘tempests of colour’ (A. King, Emil Nolde, Artist of the Elements, London, 2013, p. 10) that had, in 1906, attracted the attention of German Expressionist group, Die Brücke. Though he remained a member of the Dresden-based group of artists for just one year, colour remained the central, evocative and most important force in Nolde’s art throughout the rest of his career.
Although Nolde travelled widely throughout his life, his deep love for the natural beauty of his homeland served as a constant and profound artistic inspiration. Lying between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the swathe of land on the German and Danish border where Nolde was born and where he lived for much of his life was, ‘like a fairy tale to me…my wonderland from sea to sea’ (Nolde, quoted in '"My Homeland was like a Fairy Tale to Me" – On Emil Nolde’s Landscape Paintings', in Emil Nolde, My Wonderland from Sea to Sea, exh. cat., Cologne, 2008, p. 43). Born Emil Hansen, the artist took the name of his birthplace, Nolde, as his surname, a demonstration of his profound and ardent love for this area of northern Germany which would remain a constant throughout his career, providing the impetus for his expressive vistas that burst with colour.
In 1916, two years before Wolken was painted, Nolde and his wife Ada had moved to Utenwarf in northern Germany, near to where the artist had been born. Nolde described his love of the evocative landscape of Utenwarf; ‘I longed for the open air – for the keen, strong beauty that the west coast has in such abundance, with its wide sweep of sky and its clouds above marsh and water, especially in the harsh seasons of the year’ (Nolde, quoted in Emil Nolde, exh. cat., London, 1995-96, p. 69). Prone to turbulent weather conditions, this location provided Nolde with spectacular visions of windy, storm-laden skies and dramatic light, such as can be seen in Wolken.
A composition of boldly expressive colour, Wolken demonstrates Nolde’s profound love of vivid, intense colour, and his skill as a colourist. The flat terrain and open, expansive sky is expressed with planes and patches of thickly applied, richly glowing colour. It was Nolde’s ‘tempests of colour’ (A. King, Emil Nolde, Artist of the Elements, London, 2013, p. 10) that had, in 1906, attracted the attention of German Expressionist group, Die Brücke. Though he remained a member of the Dresden-based group of artists for just one year, colour remained the central, evocative and most important force in Nolde’s art throughout the rest of his career.