.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Sold with a copy of a photo-certificate from Professor Martin Urban of the Nolde-Stiftung, Seebll, dated 20 April 1990.
Flowers and gardens are among the most frequently occurring subjects in Nolde's art. Flowers, in particular, symbolised for Nolde the eternal cycle of birth life and death and as a passage in his autobiography Jahre der Kmpfe reveals, could be likened to a work of art in the sense that their life cycle was essentially the same. Both, he argued, were the products of natural forces and thereby subject to the laws of creation and inevitable decay, " sprouting , blossoming, gleaming, glowing, bringing joy, drooping, wilting (and finally) ending up on the rubbish tip." (E. Nolde,Jahre der Kmpfe 1902-14, Cologne 1967, p.127.)
As Gustav Schiefler - one of Nolde's earliest patrons - has recalled Nolde would often paint his flower paintings while seated in the midst of a brilliant profusion of flowers that grew in his garden, growing " quieter and quieter" as he worked while, "his eyes glowed with pleasure as he appied one colour after another, subjecting the confusion of colour to the logic of form". (cited in Emil Nolde exhib. cat. Whitechapel Gallery , London, 1996, p. 118.)
Often criticised for falsely exaggerating the colours of nature in his stunningly vibrant watercolours and oils in which the surface is drenched with the most intense hues, Nolde is known to have rebutted these charges saying that it was simply not true. "Once , I positioned my canvases amidst the flowers themselves and saw immediately how the former pailed into insignificance....... We have no idea how jaded our eyes have become." (Nolde cited in Ibid, p. 127.)
Flowers and gardens are among the most frequently occurring subjects in Nolde's art. Flowers, in particular, symbolised for Nolde the eternal cycle of birth life and death and as a passage in his autobiography Jahre der Kmpfe reveals, could be likened to a work of art in the sense that their life cycle was essentially the same. Both, he argued, were the products of natural forces and thereby subject to the laws of creation and inevitable decay, " sprouting , blossoming, gleaming, glowing, bringing joy, drooping, wilting (and finally) ending up on the rubbish tip." (E. Nolde,Jahre der Kmpfe 1902-14, Cologne 1967, p.127.)
As Gustav Schiefler - one of Nolde's earliest patrons - has recalled Nolde would often paint his flower paintings while seated in the midst of a brilliant profusion of flowers that grew in his garden, growing " quieter and quieter" as he worked while, "his eyes glowed with pleasure as he appied one colour after another, subjecting the confusion of colour to the logic of form". (cited in Emil Nolde exhib. cat. Whitechapel Gallery , London, 1996, p. 118.)
Often criticised for falsely exaggerating the colours of nature in his stunningly vibrant watercolours and oils in which the surface is drenched with the most intense hues, Nolde is known to have rebutted these charges saying that it was simply not true. "Once , I positioned my canvases amidst the flowers themselves and saw immediately how the former pailed into insignificance....... We have no idea how jaded our eyes have become." (Nolde cited in Ibid, p. 127.)