Emil Nolde - Hof Seebüll - image-1

Lot 242 D

Emil Nolde - Hof Seebüll

Auction 1143 - overview Cologne
29.11.2019, 18:00 - Modern Art I
Estimate: 130.000 € - 150.000 €
Result: 148.800 € (incl. premium)

Emil Nolde

Hof Seebüll
Circa 1930

Watercolour on Japan paper 35.2/34.7 x 46.5 cm Framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde.' in grey lower left. - Vibrant colours. The sheet edges minimally irregularly cut and with drawing pin holes in the corners.

“Those who are familiar with the landscape around Utenwarf and Seebüll will rediscover it in Nolde's pictures. His colours really exist here: the bold green of the broad expanses of meadow, the yellow of the rapeseed fields and the deep blue of the lakes, rivers and sluices. They change in the light of the sky, which - with its slowly wandering clouds and particularly in the autumn, morning and evening - glows in abundant colours, whose scale ranges from pale green to dark violet and blue, from yellow, brown and orange to glowing red; the light transforms everything into an unreal sea of colour. This landscape means the same for the art of Nolde as Provence near Aix-en-Provence, Tholenet and Chateau-Noir at the foot of Sainte-Victoire for Cézanne.” (Martin Urban, Emil Nolde. Landschaften. Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, Cologne 1969, p. 29).
The view across the expansive land, with the Seebüll homestead gleaming on the horizon, represents one of the iconic views in Nolde's pictorial programme. He repeatedly found his way back to this motif by successfully transcending concrete appearances in a striking manner which resembles that in his best floral pieces. In our watercolour - in contrast to other landscapes by the artist - Nolde has chosen a higher horizon line and animates the foreground with his depiction of several geese. Only rarely does the double character of his art become as apparent as it does here: an art that draws its untamed power equally from authentic nature and its metaphysics.

Certificate

The watercolour is registered at the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll.

Provenance

Nolde Stiftung Collection, Seebüll; Galerie Meta Nierendorf, Berlin (1967); Marlborough Gallery, London (1969); H. R. James, Esq, London; in family possession since, England

Literature

Claudia Haschke und Petra Niebuhr-Timpe, Meilensteine. Geschichte, Kultur und Wissenschaft. Meisterwerke der Kunst, Gütersloh 2006, p.304 with colour illus.; Florian von Heintze, Kunst und Architektur, Wissensbibliothek vol. 10, Gütersloh 2006, p.227 with colour illus.

Exhibitions

Berlin 1967 (Galerie Nierendorf), Expressionismus, cat. no. 87 with illus.; London 1969 (Marlborough Gallery), Edvard Munch - Emil Nolde. The Relationship of their Art (without catalogue mention, but with exhibition label on frame backing)