Lot 674 R

Prof. Manfred Reuther of the Seebüll Foundation added the following information to this volume of the artist's autobiography: "This special edition of the first volume of Nolde's autobiography 'Das eigene Leben' with the pasted watercolour was originally published by Nolde himself and then by a publishing company, the Rembrandt Verlag in Berlin, in identical form later in the same year. We know of nine copies, each with a watercolour pasted into it, one of them numbered '36'. We also have a copy of the special edition in Seebüll, although without watercolour, numbered '46'."
Nolde had dedicated his memoirs to his wife Ada, and we would like to quote a passage where the author describes his historic stay in Paris as well as his close look at art and art history in this volume:
"The year 1900 brought an infinite number of people to the World Exposition. There was a lot of commotion on the boulevards and in the exhibition halls. Dull, dark gongs resounded from the Moroccan booths. I often visited the various art departments. There were several particularly beautiful small paintings by Daumier, and I was also interested in Rodin, because some of his sculptures are so powerful, while others are quite sweet, with gently fluttering movements. [...] At the Louvre I stood before Botticelli's frescoes, Titian's paintings, Ruben's large decorations, Giorgione's beautiful 'Rural Concerts' and the lovely 'Mona Lisa'. I especially enjoyed going to one particular Goya painting and also to Rembrandt's small, wonderful Emmaus painting. [...] As I stood there, I would compare the old paintings with the people who were looking at them, and so the shapes and lines of those natural people appeared rather crinkly and fussy next to the old paintings. I had long been instinctively aware of the great distance between those two worlds, nature and art. But in my lonely hours I would still sit there, investigating things, searching and asking questions. The grand masters of the centuries all have grand lines and shapes in their sculptures and deep, full, rich colours in their paintings, yet they have found these not by imitating nature but through free, self-exalting inventions. [...] Art - does art lead to happiness? - Let's just mention one thing: Greek art has given mankind an infinite amount of happiness for several thousands of years. Compared with this, the happiness of piled-up wealth disappeared very quickly, like dust, and world kingdoms, too, have passed away, leaving no more than a bit of history." (Quoted by: Emil Nolde, Das eigene Leben, Die Zeit der Jugend 1867-1902, third extended edition, Cologne 1967, pp. 200, 201, 202)