Details
Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

Kerzentänzerinnen (Schiefler, Mosel H127)

woodcut, 1917, on Japan, fifth (final) state, a fine impression of this very 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, extremely pale light-staining, some rippling, one or two pinholes, taped to the mount at the upper sheet edge, generally in good condition
L. 12 x 9.3/8in. (30.3 x 23.7cm.)
S. 15 x 12. 1/8in. (38.2 x 30.8cm.)

Lot Essay

Kerzentänzerinnen is closely related to the 1912 painting of the same name in the Stiftung Ada und Emil Nolde, Seebll
(M. Urban, Emil Nolde, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1987, no. 512), and 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 the more angular approach to the figures.

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