Schaf und Figuren

Details

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Schaf und Figuren
signed 'Emil Nolde' (lower centre), signed again and titled 'Emil Nolde Schaf und Figuren' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
28¼ x 22 5/8in. (72 x 57.5cm.)
Painted in 1912

Provenance

Galerie Commeter, Hamburg (1676).
Hans Fehr, Halle.
Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, 33rd auction, 1959, lot 679 (illustrated in colour).
Conrad Fehr, Berne.

Literature

The Artist's Handlist, 1910, no. 420.
P. E. Küppers, 'Nolde', Das Kunstblatt, vol. II, 1918, no. 11, p. 329 (illustrated p. 345).
The Artist's Handlist, 1930 (as '1912 Schaf Figuren').
M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. I, 1895-1914, London, 1987, no. 506 (illustrated p. 442).

Exhibited

Munich, Der Neue Kunstsalon, Emil Nolde, 4-30 Nov. 1912, no. 2 (priced at 500 Marks).
Halle, Kunstverein, Emil Nolde, 1913.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Emil Nolde, Oct.-Nov. 1958, no. 20.
Berne, Kunsthalle (on loan).
Venice, XXVIIIème Exposition Biennale International des Beaux Arts, 1956.

Lot Essay

Schaf und Figuren belongs to a series of still lifes painted between 1912 and 1913. It was exhibited, along with another 47 important paintings, in a major exhibition of Nolde's work shown at Der Neue Kunstsalon in Munich in 1912. Priced at 500 marks, it was one of the more expensive still lifes in an exhibition which also included such illustrious works as Christus in Bethanien (Urban 353), the whole Leben Christi cycle and Feriengäste (Urban 445).

Pencil studies for all three objects in the present work exist. The drawings for the Egyptian statuette, Peruvian clay figure and sheep figurine are numbered 64, 72 and 128 respectively in the Nolde-Stiftung archive.

The painting was part of the celebrated collection of Hans Fehr, a lifelong friend of Nolde, who in 1957 wrote Emil Nolde. Ein Buch der Freundschaft.

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