(Nolde, Schleswig, 1867–1956 Seebüll) Autumn evening, circa 1930, signed Nolde, watercolour with pen and dark ink on Japan paper, 20.4 x 23.9 cm, framed, (PP)

This watercolour is registered with the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll.

Photo certificate:
Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde, Prof Manfred Reuther, Seebüll, 30 January 2013

Provenance:
Galerie Rudolf Probst, Mannheim
Levy Collection, Basle (acquired from collection 1954) the heirs

Despite travelling widely, and an imagination that transcended borders and times, Nolde cannot be considered without reference to his home: the region by the sea between Tondern and the village of Nolde, with Ruttebüll, Utenwarf und Seebüll. Those who know this landscape rediscover them in Nolde’s works. Here, too, we find his colours in real life; the strident green meadows, the yellow fields of rape, the deep blue of the lakes, rivers and sluices, and over the flat landscape the light of the open sky which with their moving clouds, especially in autumn, shines in the long dawns and dusks in an abundance of colours, their spectrum ranging from pale green to dark violet and blue, from yellow, brown, orange to a glowing red; the light transforms everything into a surreal sea of colour (as in the present watercolour). […]
Nolde experimented extensively with watercolour painting techniques. He has a fondness for working on Japan which he first tried in 1910 in his Berlin watercolours. He takes stiff or soft, sturdy and thin paper, the colours applied wet on wet. After drying they can be painted over, particular centres accentuated, objects details highlighted, sometimes larger areas of colour are also applied to the reverse.
Nolde claimed that he appreciated it most when the drawing developed out of the colours when painting, when drawing and painting were a simultaneous process. (S. Sabarsky: Malerei des dt. Expressionismus, Wien 1987)