Emil Nolde - Marschlandschaft mit Abendwolken - image-1

Lot 26 D

Emil Nolde - Marschlandschaft mit Abendwolken

Auction 1233 - overview Cologne
01.12.2023, 18:00 - Evening Sale - Modern and Contemporary Art
Estimate: 40.000 € - 50.000 €

Emil Nolde

Marschlandschaft mit Abendwolken
Circa 1925/1930

Watercolour on thick handmade paper. 30.5 x 45.5 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde' in pencil lower right. - In very good condition.

In this extraordinarily expressive depiction of a landscape, Emil Nolde reveals his entire artistic ability and his sensibility for natural phenomena made up of light and colour. He has brilliantly transposed the dramatic natural spectacle of an evening, the likes of which it is surely impossible to observe anywhere other than the flat marsh landscape of his German-Danish homeland.
A line of low-hanging clouds runs diagonally across the sky that nearly fills the picture; the clouds’ broad, brown contour lines and their play of colours reflecting the setting sun in various shades of pink and yellow strikingly set them off against the shimmering blue background. The work is remarkable not just for the colouristic quality it achieves with the help of Nolde’s famous watercolour technique, but also for the strong sense of depth produced solely through the layered progression of the cloud formations.
The extensive views of marsh landscapes that Nolde created in the late 1920s – initially in the area around Utenwarf and then around Seebüll – capture a great variety of weather phenomena and atmospheric light and are certainly to be counted among the great masterpieces of his oeuvre. They intensely express the artist’s love for the austere and diverse beauty of this remote and expansive landscape.

Certificate

Certificate from Manfred Reuther, Klockries, from 2 February 2022. The work is registered with the number "Nolde A-230/2022" in his archive.

Provenance

Hauswedell & Nolte, Auction 239, 12/13 June 1981, Lot 1056; private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia