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Lot Essay
Nolde's earliest colourist pictures, executed from 1906 on, were strongly influenced by Van Gogh. It is no coincidence that this was the year he was invited to become a member of the Brücke movement. Its much younger founders - Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff and Pechstein - had escaped the shackles of German academic painting by adopting Van Gogh's livid colours and impassioned brushwork. Amongst Nolde's most impressive canvases of this early Brücke period are the fabulous flower paintings painted in his garden on the island of Alsen. These richly textured, explosive oils regularly featured in early Brücke exhibitions and are now in many of Europe's most significant museum collections.
During World War I, Nolde joined an expedition to the German colonies in New Guinea, where the colourful traditions inspired him to paint a series of magnificent, highly coloured oils of dancers, artefacts and primitive festivals. Back in Germany after the war, he returned to flower painting with an even more powerful palette. Undoubtedly his most successful and complex flower oils were painted between 1919 and 1925. Some are now in museums in Mannheim, Cologne, Kiel, Schleswig and Mülheim, amongst others, but perhaps the best were kept by Nolde and his family and are today in the Nolde Stiftung in Seebüll.
Very few major canvases have ever left the Nolde Stiftung and the present picture, simply entitled Blumengarten, is one. Painted in the prime year of 1922, it has remained in the same private collection ever since it was purchased through the celebrated dealer Aenne Abels in 1963. It also remains in original condition, which is extremely rare for these flower pieces, which are often painted on soft canvases with a very heavy impasto. With the passing of time the impasto oil on these canvases often begins to lift or even flake, inevitably leading to restoration. However, Blumengarten remains in perfect condition.
This painting was included in the magnificent memorial exhibition in Hamburg after Nolde's death in 1956. Thereafter it was shown in no less than seven major exhibitions between 1958 and 1962, including the Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The painting has not been shown publicly for 35 years.
During World War I, Nolde joined an expedition to the German colonies in New Guinea, where the colourful traditions inspired him to paint a series of magnificent, highly coloured oils of dancers, artefacts and primitive festivals. Back in Germany after the war, he returned to flower painting with an even more powerful palette. Undoubtedly his most successful and complex flower oils were painted between 1919 and 1925. Some are now in museums in Mannheim, Cologne, Kiel, Schleswig and Mülheim, amongst others, but perhaps the best were kept by Nolde and his family and are today in the Nolde Stiftung in Seebüll.
Very few major canvases have ever left the Nolde Stiftung and the present picture, simply entitled Blumengarten, is one. Painted in the prime year of 1922, it has remained in the same private collection ever since it was purchased through the celebrated dealer Aenne Abels in 1963. It also remains in original condition, which is extremely rare for these flower pieces, which are often painted on soft canvases with a very heavy impasto. With the passing of time the impasto oil on these canvases often begins to lift or even flake, inevitably leading to restoration. However, Blumengarten remains in perfect condition.
This painting was included in the magnificent memorial exhibition in Hamburg after Nolde's death in 1956. Thereafter it was shown in no less than seven major exhibitions between 1958 and 1962, including the Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The painting has not been shown publicly for 35 years.