Emil Nolde
Großer Dampfer und kleine Dampfschiffe
Artist
Emil Nolde
Additional Description
Tusche und Aquarell auf feinem Japan. (1910). Ca. 20 x 27 cm. Signiert unten rechts.
Period
(1867 Nolde - Seebüll 1956)
Technique
Works on paper
Provenance
Kunsthandel Carla Kunkel, München; Ehemals Privatsammlung, 1999 bei Vorgenannter erworben.
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Description
- Sailing ships and steamers are an important, recurring motif in Nolde's oeuvre
- The play of shapes and colors of the sea fascinates Nolde again and again
Emil Nolde repeatedly painted steamers in the sea to depict the power of nature. As here, his works often show the steamers as contrasting black shadows and lines almost dissolving into the color spectacle of the sky and sea. Nolde uses intense contrasts to convey his emotional impressions, seeing reality as a means of expressing his feelings. Some of the steamers are only hinted at and act as anchor points in the overall composition. Many of these watercolors also demonstrate Nolde's ability to achieve an immense emotional impact through the fluid forms and colors.
"Nolde knows the sea as no artist before him has ever known it," wrote Max Sauerlandt in his 1921 monograph on Nolde. "He does not see it from the shore or from a ship, he sees it as it lives in itself, detached from any reference to man, as the eternally lively, eternally changeable, divine primal being living out completely in itself, exhausting itself in itself, which to this day has still retained the untamed freedom of the first day of creation." (quoted from Manfred Reuther, in: exhib. cat., Emil Nolde. In Glut und Farbe, Lower Belvedere, Vienna 2014, p. 130/131).
With a confirmation from the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll dated 4.7.2025. The work is registered at the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll under the number Fr.A.2226 and will be included in the catalog raisonné of watercolors and drawings currently in preparation.
- The play of shapes and colors of the sea fascinates Nolde again and again
Emil Nolde repeatedly painted steamers in the sea to depict the power of nature. As here, his works often show the steamers as contrasting black shadows and lines almost dissolving into the color spectacle of the sky and sea. Nolde uses intense contrasts to convey his emotional impressions, seeing reality as a means of expressing his feelings. Some of the steamers are only hinted at and act as anchor points in the overall composition. Many of these watercolors also demonstrate Nolde's ability to achieve an immense emotional impact through the fluid forms and colors.
"Nolde knows the sea as no artist before him has ever known it," wrote Max Sauerlandt in his 1921 monograph on Nolde. "He does not see it from the shore or from a ship, he sees it as it lives in itself, detached from any reference to man, as the eternally lively, eternally changeable, divine primal being living out completely in itself, exhausting itself in itself, which to this day has still retained the untamed freedom of the first day of creation." (quoted from Manfred Reuther, in: exhib. cat., Emil Nolde. In Glut und Farbe, Lower Belvedere, Vienna 2014, p. 130/131).
With a confirmation from the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll dated 4.7.2025. The work is registered at the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll under the number Fr.A.2226 and will be included in the catalog raisonné of watercolors and drawings currently in preparation.