Lot 39 D

With the “Dahlien” from 1948, one of Emil Nolde’s most beautiful and intensely colourful floral paintings from his late period has come up for auction. There is scarcely another floral piece from those years that similarly unites the fully autonomous employment of colour with a daring composition in which Nolde dramatically presents the individual flowers in large and expansive form. This work, which is unique in its combination of flowers, has been exhibited numerous times and possesses an outstanding provenance.

In the summer of 1916 Ada and Emil Nolde moved into the farmhouse they had just purchased: Utenwarf an der Widau, located not far from the Danish town of Tønder. On the land surrounding the house, they planted a large flower garden, which they expertly and lovingly cultivated: “During the following summer, we – parallel to my artistic activity – liked to work in our garden and on our little farm” (cited from: Emil Nolde. Mein Leben, Cologne 1976, p. 314). Many of Nolde’s floral paintings originated in this garden. However, unlike Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Gabriele Münter, who usually painted their flowers placed in a vase, Nolde sat down on a stool in the middle of the flower bed and captured the blooms within their original surroundings. The majority of these flowers are also identifiable, including his well-known sunflowers, red poppies, irises, lilies, calla lilies, foxgloves, and dahlias. What interested him here was always the splendour of the flowers in full bloom and not – as in the case of Lovis Corinth, for example – wilted flowers, which were still interpreted as symbols of ephemerality at the beginning of the 20th century.

Nolde has selected dahlias, which bloom in the early autumn, as the motif for his picture. The painting was presumably also created in the middle of his garden, since a narrow path can be seen leading between the flower beds to allow gardeners to reach areas lying further back. Unlike his early works, Nolde has utilised the intensity of the colours – the bold yellow-orange on the left, the luminous carmine red opposite it and the soft purple in the background –as a compositional means of expression. He has additionally made use of the complementary contrasts red–green and yellow–purple to further intensify the colouristic effect. Compositionally, the flowers fill the entire picture plane and are even cut off by its edges. With confident strokes of a brush loaded with colour, he seems to depict the flowers as living beings whose unfolding beauty extends all the way to the edges of the canvas: “These floral paintings are not intended as a pleasant, pretty entertainment”, writes Nolde, “no, I would very much like them to be more, for them to uplift and move and provide the viewer with a whole tone drawn from life and human existence” (cited in: Emil Nolde, exh. cat. Galerie Thomas Munich, 2012, p. 52).

This painting is from the estate of Jolanthe Nolde (1921-2010), the artist’s second wife. She is to be recognised for accompanying the establishment and development of the Seebüll foundation with dedication and with an understanding of Nolde’s work as an artist.