Lot Essay
The present work shows a fisherman's cottage in Nidden, the small fishing village on the Baltic coast which Pechstein visited for the first time in 1908. He returned there for several summers, including June to September 1909, attracted by its simple way of life, "a forgotten human settlement, whose inhabitants have maintained their life and work, the flow of time, in a state just as unaltered as the ocean" (Max Osborn, Max Pechstein, Berlin, 1922, p. 88).
Pechstein's affection for Nidden is clear in his description of his first visit there in 1909: "Ich wurde vertraut mit allen Einheimischen, und sie erschlossen sich mir. Wie sie lebte ich in der Hauptsache von der Ernte des Fischers im Wassers, vom Fisch in jeglicher Form. Vom ersten bis zum letzten Tag drückte mich kein Schuhwerk, barfuss schritt ich einher, ohne mir etwas Besonderes dabei zu denken. Bis in den tiefen Herbst blieb ich da, und ich war mit Wonnen der Besitzerfreude erfüllt, wenn ich durch morgentlichen Tau vor dem Aufstieg des Sonnenballes zur Arbeit ging." (see ed. L. Reidemeister, Max Pechstein Erinnerungen, Wiesbaden, 1960, p. 36).
Pechstein was the only member of the Die Brücke with extensive training as an artist; he had studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and won a coveted fellowship to Rome in 1905. He also enjoyed broad contact with the most celebrated artists in Paris and Berlin. As his friends Heckel and Kirchner began to increase the flatness of their forms around 1910, emphasizing broad planes rather than the play of discreet brushstrokes, Pechstein independently retained the more concentrated strokes of Morgen (Fischerhäuser in Nidden), using van Gogh as his prototype. Van Gogh was enjoying phenomenal success in Germany at this time, as several museums purchased examples of his major works, and a large exhibition devoted to him was mounted in Dresden in 1908.
Peter Vergo has remarked "Pechstein's works of the years around 1910 are, in style, quite distinct from those of the other members of the Brücke group, and display by comparison with theirs a remarkable sureness in the handling of form, and economy and concentration of pictorial means." (P. Vergo, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of Twentieth-Century German Painting, London, 1992, p. 234).
Pechstein's affection for Nidden is clear in his description of his first visit there in 1909: "Ich wurde vertraut mit allen Einheimischen, und sie erschlossen sich mir. Wie sie lebte ich in der Hauptsache von der Ernte des Fischers im Wassers, vom Fisch in jeglicher Form. Vom ersten bis zum letzten Tag drückte mich kein Schuhwerk, barfuss schritt ich einher, ohne mir etwas Besonderes dabei zu denken. Bis in den tiefen Herbst blieb ich da, und ich war mit Wonnen der Besitzerfreude erfüllt, wenn ich durch morgentlichen Tau vor dem Aufstieg des Sonnenballes zur Arbeit ging." (see ed. L. Reidemeister, Max Pechstein Erinnerungen, Wiesbaden, 1960, p. 36).
Pechstein was the only member of the Die Brücke with extensive training as an artist; he had studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and won a coveted fellowship to Rome in 1905. He also enjoyed broad contact with the most celebrated artists in Paris and Berlin. As his friends Heckel and Kirchner began to increase the flatness of their forms around 1910, emphasizing broad planes rather than the play of discreet brushstrokes, Pechstein independently retained the more concentrated strokes of Morgen (Fischerhäuser in Nidden), using van Gogh as his prototype. Van Gogh was enjoying phenomenal success in Germany at this time, as several museums purchased examples of his major works, and a large exhibition devoted to him was mounted in Dresden in 1908.
Peter Vergo has remarked "Pechstein's works of the years around 1910 are, in style, quite distinct from those of the other members of the Brücke group, and display by comparison with theirs a remarkable sureness in the handling of form, and economy and concentration of pictorial means." (P. Vergo, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of Twentieth-Century German Painting, London, 1992, p. 234).