Lot 455 Dα

Pechstein's watercolour is reminiscent of his dramatic colour landscapes featuring dunes - paintings created in Pomerania in the first half of the 1930s. In the work presented here, which was created later, the artist has selected a greatly elevated vantage point, providing an overview of the chain of steep-sided sand formations stretching to the distant horizon. He depicts the sparse vegetation, long dune grass, pines and dark forest, which stretch all the way to the Baltic Sea. The landscape is bathed in a strange and magical light through the sun, which stands low in the sky behind the grey-blue clouds, and it takes on a picturesque ambience that appears expressive but nonetheless mild and tranquil. Any striking effects of staging or drama have been avoided. The arising contrast of value and colour are soothing to the eye, so that our gaze - roaming from the foreground to the far-off horizon and the sea - becomes completely immersed in the scenic solitude and stillness of this impression of nature sensed so grandly by the artist.