작품 상세

Watercolour and India ink on thin Japan paper 34/34.5 x 48 cm, framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde.' lower right. - Colours fresh. Lower part of sheet with slight creases. Some parts with slight foxing and somewhat browned. With a photo-expertise by Martin Urban, Stiftung Ada und Emil Nolde, Seebüll, dated 28 November 1989. The work is registered with the Nolde-Stiftung Seebüll. Provenance Private collection, North Germany Exhibition Berlin 2002 (Brücke-Museum), Emil Nolde in der Südsee, cat. no. 29 with colour illus. (colour reproduction differing) Together with his wife, Emil Nolde set out on his famous voyage to the South Seas in October 1913 as part of a small "medical-demographical" research expedition: this journey would become a rich source of inspiration for the painter. As a member of the expedition, he was officially entrusted with the "investigation of the racial characteristics of the population"; however, his actual goal was to capture images of people and natural scenery untouched by modern civilisation. In this context he did not see this alien South-Sea world in a romantically idealised manner, but was very much conscious of its endangerment and progressive destruction through its colonisation, a situation he vehemently criticised. Because of the climatic conditions and being constantly on the move during this journey, Nolde worked primarily with coloured pencils, coloured chalk, ink and watercolours. These techniques made it possible for him to quickly and spontaneously capture a moment. While he primarily recorded impressions of landscapes in the coloured pencil and chalk drawings, the watercolours were mostly reserved for people; he created numerous portraits as well as depictions of groups of people set in their villages, at the beach or in the water. "Nolde has left behind a sincere, humane and dignified image. It does not share the outer form of the artworks of primitive cultures, but certainly their compositional principle - the reduction of form to the essential, in the service of a soulful, spiritual expression. ... In accordance with Expressionism, Nolde also pursued the Romantic idea of the original unity of humanity and nature. However, for him this was overshadowed by the certainty of its loss." (Barbara Lülf, in: Emil Nolde: Expedition in die Südsee (Brücke-Archiv 20/2002), Munich 2002, p. 140).