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Lot Essay
Sold with a photo-certificate from Professor Dr. Martin Urban from the Nolde-Stiftung Seebüll, dated 31.7.2001.
Nolde spent most of his life by the sea. Just as it was a constant in his life, it became one of the most significant subjects in his art. It was the dominant element in his homeland of Schleswig-Holstein, the German portion of the Danish peninsula, and although Nolde spent a lot of time in Berlin, it was always to the sea that he returned.
Even Nolde's early seascapes are packed with emotion and energy, but it was after a turbulent crossing of the Kattegat that his pictures really began to take the strong, individual feel so particular to his depictions. He recounted that he was almost hypnotised by the lashing waters:
'I stood gripping the rail, gazing and wondering as the waves and the ship tossed me up and down… for years afterwards, that day remained so vividly in my mind that I incorporated it into my sea paintings with their wild, mountainous green waves and only at the topmost edge a sliver of sulphurous sky' (Nolde, in Peter Vergo and Felicity Lunn, Emil Nolde, exh. cat., London, 1995, p. 132).
From this momentous confrontation with his most accustomed element grew the absorbing nature of his seascapes - there is no shore in Meer mit Dampfern unter gelbem Himmel, only a vast expanse of sea and cloud punctuated by the two distant vessels. The gold of the sky and the deep blue bleed together. There is an intense mixture of wonder and danger, comfort and exposure - Nolde's home town was close enough to the sea for him to see it as both protection and threat, and this curious mixture is perfectly captured in this work. Although to some extent the treatment of light is reminiscent of Turner's seascapes, which Nolde greatly admired, the feelings contained in Meer mit Dampfern unter gelbem Himmel are completely different. Nolde has captured the raw power of Nature, Man's mechanical ships seeming lost and isolated in the vast expanse.
The present watercolour relates very closely to an oil painting Nolde executed around 1935, Meer und helle Wolken. Despite superficial similarities of appearance, the differences between these works, especially in the manner of execution, were vast. Nolde's expertise was in watercolour, and he experimented hugely not only with the artistic techniques, but almost scientifically with the properties and durability of the materials themselves. His experiences painting in Berlin's dark theatres, and then as a journalist on his South Seas tour from 1913 to 1914 resulted in him perfecting a technique by which he could almost instantly capture an image. It is the immediacy of his best watercolours which elevates them to greatness.
Nolde spent most of his life by the sea. Just as it was a constant in his life, it became one of the most significant subjects in his art. It was the dominant element in his homeland of Schleswig-Holstein, the German portion of the Danish peninsula, and although Nolde spent a lot of time in Berlin, it was always to the sea that he returned.
Even Nolde's early seascapes are packed with emotion and energy, but it was after a turbulent crossing of the Kattegat that his pictures really began to take the strong, individual feel so particular to his depictions. He recounted that he was almost hypnotised by the lashing waters:
'I stood gripping the rail, gazing and wondering as the waves and the ship tossed me up and down… for years afterwards, that day remained so vividly in my mind that I incorporated it into my sea paintings with their wild, mountainous green waves and only at the topmost edge a sliver of sulphurous sky' (Nolde, in Peter Vergo and Felicity Lunn, Emil Nolde, exh. cat., London, 1995, p. 132).
From this momentous confrontation with his most accustomed element grew the absorbing nature of his seascapes - there is no shore in Meer mit Dampfern unter gelbem Himmel, only a vast expanse of sea and cloud punctuated by the two distant vessels. The gold of the sky and the deep blue bleed together. There is an intense mixture of wonder and danger, comfort and exposure - Nolde's home town was close enough to the sea for him to see it as both protection and threat, and this curious mixture is perfectly captured in this work. Although to some extent the treatment of light is reminiscent of Turner's seascapes, which Nolde greatly admired, the feelings contained in Meer mit Dampfern unter gelbem Himmel are completely different. Nolde has captured the raw power of Nature, Man's mechanical ships seeming lost and isolated in the vast expanse.
The present watercolour relates very closely to an oil painting Nolde executed around 1935, Meer und helle Wolken. Despite superficial similarities of appearance, the differences between these works, especially in the manner of execution, were vast. Nolde's expertise was in watercolour, and he experimented hugely not only with the artistic techniques, but almost scientifically with the properties and durability of the materials themselves. His experiences painting in Berlin's dark theatres, and then as a journalist on his South Seas tour from 1913 to 1914 resulted in him perfecting a technique by which he could almost instantly capture an image. It is the immediacy of his best watercolours which elevates them to greatness.