Lot 442 D

In the summer of 1909 Emil Nolde created a series of large-format works on paper in pure ink technique - which have become very rare today - in and around the village of Ruttebüll, a village near Utenwarf and the German-Danish border. In the early sheet here, Nolde already savours all the possibilities offered by this medium, both in the composition and in the handling of the brush; as a result, the narrowly concentrated depiction of the motif hovers on an imagined horizon line between heaven and earth, seemingly reflected in itself. In a manner reminiscent of impressionism, the picture's motif is strongly cropped and abstracted. The suggestion of the depicted watery landscape and its distance in space function perfectly. Two thirds of the picture plane remain unpainted; the dabs and strokes of black ink unfold dialectically, so to speak, on the empty ground of the paper.
As confirmed by Manfred Reuther in his expert report, the topography can nonetheless be clearly identified: we find ourselves at Lake Ruttebüll, with the lock and the bridge over the Wiedau where it flows out of the lake. Nolde “had rented a room from a young widow in the house next to the lock by the bridge. [...] The image depicts the view from the somewhat lower-lying stretch of shore - or more probably from the lake, on a hay boat that was made available to him during those weeks - towards the slope of the dyke and the thatch-roofed, somewhat elevated and broadly built farmhouse with its big, bright barn door as well as the adjoining bridge across the Wiedau.” (Manfred Reuther, quoted from his examination letter dated 5 March 2019).