Lot Essay
Nolde's association with the lithographic workshop of Westphalen in Flensburg in 1913 marked a turning point in the artist's lithographic work. In the rarified atmosphere of the workshop Nolde was fascinated by the effects of working directly on the lithographic stone and exercised all his painterly skills for the first time in the medium of colour lithography. Over an eight-week period he executed no less than thirteen large-scale compositions employing a variety of colour combinations for each subject. The work culminated in his Tänzerin in which, as he said, he expressed all his passion and joy: 'Die Tänzerin, das letzte der Blätter, sollte Leidenschaft und meine Freude bekunden' (Emil Nolde, Jahre der Kämpfe, Cologne, 1967, p. 261).
Nolde was profoundly stirred by the experience of the dance in which he looked for rapt and total surrender to all the most powerful bodily expressions. He was particularly interested in the Australian dancer Saharet whom he once saw and described as 'Wild and whirling in her turns, and her streaming black hair suggested some fantastic primeval creature' (quoted in W. Haftmann, Emil Nolde, New York, Candle Dancers, text for plate 12).
Frenzied dancing is the subject of some celebrated oil paintings between 1910 and 1914, including 'Tanz um das Goldene Kalb' (M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. I, London, 1987, no. 348), 'Kerzentänzerinnen' (Urban, op. cit., no. 512), and 'Stilleben mit Tänzerinnen' (Urban, op. cit., no. 633). During 1913 Nolde was also actively involved in a pottery workshop in Flensburg where he produced many plates, jugs and tiles, often with dancing themes. A ceramic tile dating from circa 1914 and depicting two similar dancing figures is included in this auction as lot 176.
Schiefler records a number of proofs of this print which use between one and five colours in a variety of combinations. He also records an edition of 35 in five colours, although it seems possible that the edition was in the four colours displayed in the present impression. Impressions in any variety of colours of this most vibrant and expressive lithograph are now very rare.
Nolde was profoundly stirred by the experience of the dance in which he looked for rapt and total surrender to all the most powerful bodily expressions. He was particularly interested in the Australian dancer Saharet whom he once saw and described as 'Wild and whirling in her turns, and her streaming black hair suggested some fantastic primeval creature' (quoted in W. Haftmann, Emil Nolde, New York, Candle Dancers, text for plate 12).
Frenzied dancing is the subject of some celebrated oil paintings between 1910 and 1914, including 'Tanz um das Goldene Kalb' (M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. I, London, 1987, no. 348), 'Kerzentänzerinnen' (Urban, op. cit., no. 512), and 'Stilleben mit Tänzerinnen' (Urban, op. cit., no. 633). During 1913 Nolde was also actively involved in a pottery workshop in Flensburg where he produced many plates, jugs and tiles, often with dancing themes. A ceramic tile dating from circa 1914 and depicting two similar dancing figures is included in this auction as lot 176.
Schiefler records a number of proofs of this print which use between one and five colours in a variety of combinations. He also records an edition of 35 in five colours, although it seems possible that the edition was in the four colours displayed in the present impression. Impressions in any variety of colours of this most vibrant and expressive lithograph are now very rare.