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Lot Essay
Nolde and his wife Ada moved to the village of Notsmarkov on the island of Alsen in 1903, where the artist created a cottage garden which was to inspire his celebrated flower paintings. His fourth stay on the island in 1906 marked the start of a fruitful, intensive phase of creativity when Nolde adopted a new, powerful use of colour, shown in its maturity in Blumengarten, Frau und Mohn. Beside van Gogh, whose works he had seen in Hagen, Nolde received major impetus from the pictures of Christian Rohlfs which he had seen in 1906 in Soest, from the painting of the French Impressionists and from the unususal approach of the young Die Brücke artists, who had written to Nolde at the beginning of the year to ask him to join their group.
Gustav Schiefler, one of the first admirers and collectors of Nolde's work, was one of the few people to visit the artist in his rural retreat on Alsen. He recorded how he would sometimes find Nolde seated in front of his easel in the midst of a brilliant profusion of flowers: 'stocks and asters, pinks and carnations... while Frau Nolde and I chatted, as he worked he grew quieter and quieter, but his eyes glowed with pleasure as he applied one colour after another, subjecting the confusion of colour to the logic of form' (G. Schiefler, Festschrift für Emil Nolde anlässlich seines 60. Geburtstages, Dresden, 1927, p. 56).
Nolde was introduced to the art of van Gogh by his friend Schmidt-Rottluff. As Professor Magdalena Moeller explains, 'the radiant colours of the flowers in the sunlight increasingly intensified his palette. With impasto paint, used as it came out of the tube, he modelled the brilliant flowerbeds and borders' (Vincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement 1890-1914, op. cit., p. 348). Nolde himself remarked: 'The glowing colours of the flowers and the purity of the colours - I loved it all. I loved the flowers in their destiny: shooting up, blossoming, bending, fading, thrown into a ditch. A human destiny is not always so consistent and fine' (Emil Nolde, Jahre der Kämpfe, Cologne, 1967).
Nolde often included Ada or their neighbours in Alsen in his paintings, as he 'equated the goodness and purity of the women he knew with the sweetness and beauty of flowers' (F. Lunn, exh. cat. Emil Nolde, London, 1995, p. 21). Indeed, in his autobiography Nolde described his mother as 'dear and beautiful and good. She loved beautiful things in particular and was often busy with her flowers in the garden' (Emil Nolde, Das eigene Leben, Cologne, 1988, p. 12).
Gustav Schiefler, one of the first admirers and collectors of Nolde's work, was one of the few people to visit the artist in his rural retreat on Alsen. He recorded how he would sometimes find Nolde seated in front of his easel in the midst of a brilliant profusion of flowers: 'stocks and asters, pinks and carnations... while Frau Nolde and I chatted, as he worked he grew quieter and quieter, but his eyes glowed with pleasure as he applied one colour after another, subjecting the confusion of colour to the logic of form' (G. Schiefler, Festschrift für Emil Nolde anlässlich seines 60. Geburtstages, Dresden, 1927, p. 56).
Nolde was introduced to the art of van Gogh by his friend Schmidt-Rottluff. As Professor Magdalena Moeller explains, 'the radiant colours of the flowers in the sunlight increasingly intensified his palette. With impasto paint, used as it came out of the tube, he modelled the brilliant flowerbeds and borders' (Vincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement 1890-1914, op. cit., p. 348). Nolde himself remarked: 'The glowing colours of the flowers and the purity of the colours - I loved it all. I loved the flowers in their destiny: shooting up, blossoming, bending, fading, thrown into a ditch. A human destiny is not always so consistent and fine' (Emil Nolde, Jahre der Kämpfe, Cologne, 1967).
Nolde often included Ada or their neighbours in Alsen in his paintings, as he 'equated the goodness and purity of the women he knew with the sweetness and beauty of flowers' (F. Lunn, exh. cat. Emil Nolde, London, 1995, p. 21). Indeed, in his autobiography Nolde described his mother as 'dear and beautiful and good. She loved beautiful things in particular and was often busy with her flowers in the garden' (Emil Nolde, Das eigene Leben, Cologne, 1988, p. 12).