Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

Kerzentänzerinnen

Details

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Kerzentänzerinnen
woodcut, 1912, on wove paper, fifth (final) state, a fine impression of this rare print, signed in pencil, one of thirteen impressions in this state (Schiefler records a total of only eight impressions in the first four states), with margins, a deckle edge at the bottom, a horizontal tear (backed) and a nick at the right sheet edge away from the subject, a minute perforation at the upper sheet corners, some soft creasing at the upper right sheet corner, some pale discoloration, taped to the mount at the upper reverse sheet corners, otherwise generally in good condition, framed
L. 11.7/8 x 9½in. (302 x 242mm.), S. 15.7/8 x 12¾in. (405 x 324mm.)

Literature

G. Schiefler, C. Mosel, and M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Das graphische Werk, Cologne, 1995, no. 127

Lot Essay

Kerzentänzerinnen is closely related to the 1912 painting of the same name Stiftung Ada und Emil Nolde, Seebll (M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1987, no. 512); see comparative illustration. This is the major representation of the subject of the dance in the woodcut medium.

With its unrestrained manifestation of the Dionysiac power and expression of the dance, Manfred Reuther describes the picture as a high point in Nolde's artistic development. (Manfred Reuther, Der Tanz im Leben und Werk von Emil Nolde, in I. Brugger & M. Reuther ed., Emil Nolde, Vienna, 1995).

The primeval element is given new force through the primitive medium of the woodcut and through the more angular approach to the figures.

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