Tänzerin

Tänzerin is a vibrant and fantastical image which perfectly embodies Nolde's experience of the dance, a subject which fascinated him throughout his career. The theme of the dancer is one that Nolde encountered frequently during his 1926 journey to the South Seas and many of the artist's sketchbooks from Java and Burma depict native dancers in similarly expressive poses. The frenetic and undulated body movements of the figure evoke the movement and form of fire, rendered in contrasts of burning violet, orange and yellow colours. The painting also calls to mind the frenzied dancers who are the subject of a series of celebrated oil paintings, such as Tanzende Mädchen of 1925 (fig. 1).

The hysterical gestures of the character in Tänzerin find their origin in the Expressionistic Dance introduced to Germany by Isadora Duncan and the Jugendstil. Nolde was also very interested in the work of the Australian dancer Saharet whom he once saw and described as 'wild and whirling in her turns, and her streaming black hair suggested some fantastic primeval creature' (quoted in W. Haftmann, Emil Nolde, New York, p. 12). In Paris, Nolde saw the renowned Loie Fuller and later he was inspired by his close friend Mary Wigman's experimental and instinctive dance (fig. 2). Nolde was not interested in the formal dances of ballrooms but in the bodily expression of the inner soul: 'the solo dance, the art dance,' as he defined it.