Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

Kleiner Teufel

Details

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Kleiner Teufel
signed with the initial 'N' (lower right)
oil on canvas
26¾ x 12¼ in. (68 x 30.8 cm.)
Painted in 1911

Provenance

Paul Becker, Frankfurt.
H. K. Silberberg, Johannesburg.
Eugene Victor Thaw, New Gallery, New York.
Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York, where purchased by the present owner circa 1960.

Literature

The Artist's Handlist, 1910, no. 335 as '1911 Exotische Figuren', crossed out and corrected 'Kleiner Teufel'.
The Artist's Handlist, 1930 as '1911 Kleiner Teufel'.
European Art this Month, vol.I, New York, 1958, no. IX/X (illustrated p. 42).
M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. I, 1895-1914, London, no. 416 (illustrated p. 358).

Exhibited

Hagen, Museum Folkwang, Emil Nolde, March-April 1912.
Munich, Der Neue Kunstsalon, Emil Nolde, Nov. 1912, no. 13.
Halle, Kunstverein, Emil Nolde, Jan.-Feb. 1914.
Essen, Kunstverein, Emil Nolde, Aug.-Sept. 1921.
Bonn, Gesellschaft für Literatur und Kunst, Emil Nolde, Oct. 1921.
Barmen, Ruhmeshalle, Emil Nolde, Jan. 1922.
New York, New Gallery, Emil Nolde, 1957, no. 7 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

Nolde spent long periods during 1911 in the Völkerkunde Museum in Berlin, studying and sketching their important collection of tribal art. Kleiner Teufel depicts a wooden figure in the museum of which Nolde is known to have executed a preparatory study, now in the Nolde-Stiftung, Seebüll (illustrated). The present work is one of a group of paintings created by Nolde in 1911 which testify to his preoccupation with tribal art (including Urban nos. 414-418).

Kleiner Teufel was chosen for several important early one-man exhibitions, including at Hagen and Munich just one year after the work was completed.

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