Lot 400 Dα

Karl Hagemeister was a keen and devoted observer of nature, and masterfully depicted the substance and effects of light upon what he saw in his works. In 1915 he began a series of large format paintings, to which the present work belongs, showing rough seas beneath gloomy, storm-swept skies. These works depict the power of the crashing waves in dynamic close up, capturing every shade of the sea spray and churning water.
“I have recognised […] that movement is a part of breathing life and that it can only be achieved through the purest differences in the application of colour… When I see passionate things, I always see the light and air doing battle over them, and thus when I paint I always first depict things as heavy masses of colour which I then envelope in light and air. I use two main hues on the canvas, which I draw from the sky. In a way, this process mimics that of nature.” (Karl Hagemeister, cited in: Werner Doede, Die Berliner Sezession. Berlin als Zentrum der deutschen Kunst von der Jahrhundertwende bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg, Frankfurt/Main i.a. 1977, p. 92).