Lot Essay
Nolde lived on the coast all his life and the sea was a dominant theme in his oeuvre. His vividly coloured seascapes were powerful testimony to his links with both Die Brcke and the later Expressionists. In painting these seas Nolde sought to provide not just a depiction of nature but something which expressed his own emotional response to it; as he himself said "I wished for a form beyond nature itself" (Emil Nolde, exh. cat., Arts Council of Great Britain, 1968). Nolde wanted to evoke feelings and emotions, to create the visual equivalent of a physical experience.
All the artists of Die Brcke believed that colour could be used to convey inner states and moods, and Meer und Abendwolken, with its bands of crimson, gold and dark blue set alongside each other is a startling example of this. Moreover, all Nolde's seascapes, with their surging bottle-green waves, heaving white crests and sweeping clouds evoke the primal energy and emotion associated with the expressionist impulse. The contrast between the dark ocean and the glowing, sulphurous sky, creates a tremendous dramatic tension.
Meer und Abendwolken is a fine example of one of Nolde's later seascapes, revealing in its luminous colours Nolde's full realization of the potentially expressive powers of his palette. Hohe Wogen (Urban 1201), painted in 1939 and now in the Städtisches Museum in Flensburg, is strikingly similar to the present piece. It was described by Werner Haftmann as "An apotheosis of sombre light. Hovering above the transparent, ryhthmic blue of the waves, a deep purple-brown zone casts a dull light over the scene..a dramatic struggle between light and darkness unfolds in the sky..The changing yellows are reflected by a cold white that traces a glittering design over the blue ground, defining the undulatory rhythm of the blue as waves, and raising a delicate spray of foam in front of the dark purple cloud. The combination of suggestive colours produces a tragic harmony that echoes through all Nolde's late works." (Werner Haftman, Emil Nolde, New York, no. 40)
Later in 1942 Nolde wrote: "Yellow paint can show some happiness, and it can show pain. There is fiery red, blood red and rose red. There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every colour holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus. To a person who has no art in him, colours are colours, tones tones..and that is all. All their consequences for the human spirit, which range from between heaven to hell, just go unnoticed." (Nolde - Forbidden Pictures, exh. cat., Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., 1970, p. 9)
Meer und Abendwolken has not been seen publicly since its purchase by the present owner's father in 1956.
All the artists of Die Brcke believed that colour could be used to convey inner states and moods, and Meer und Abendwolken, with its bands of crimson, gold and dark blue set alongside each other is a startling example of this. Moreover, all Nolde's seascapes, with their surging bottle-green waves, heaving white crests and sweeping clouds evoke the primal energy and emotion associated with the expressionist impulse. The contrast between the dark ocean and the glowing, sulphurous sky, creates a tremendous dramatic tension.
Meer und Abendwolken is a fine example of one of Nolde's later seascapes, revealing in its luminous colours Nolde's full realization of the potentially expressive powers of his palette. Hohe Wogen (Urban 1201), painted in 1939 and now in the Städtisches Museum in Flensburg, is strikingly similar to the present piece. It was described by Werner Haftmann as "An apotheosis of sombre light. Hovering above the transparent, ryhthmic blue of the waves, a deep purple-brown zone casts a dull light over the scene..a dramatic struggle between light and darkness unfolds in the sky..The changing yellows are reflected by a cold white that traces a glittering design over the blue ground, defining the undulatory rhythm of the blue as waves, and raising a delicate spray of foam in front of the dark purple cloud. The combination of suggestive colours produces a tragic harmony that echoes through all Nolde's late works." (Werner Haftman, Emil Nolde, New York, no. 40)
Later in 1942 Nolde wrote: "Yellow paint can show some happiness, and it can show pain. There is fiery red, blood red and rose red. There is silver blue, sky blue and thunder blue. Every colour holds within it a soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus. To a person who has no art in him, colours are colours, tones tones..and that is all. All their consequences for the human spirit, which range from between heaven to hell, just go unnoticed." (Nolde - Forbidden Pictures, exh. cat., Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., 1970, p. 9)
Meer und Abendwolken has not been seen publicly since its purchase by the present owner's father in 1956.