49 - Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde Frauenkopf im Profil Circa 1916/1920 Watercolour and black India ink on beige-coloured drawing card. 20.2 x 14.9 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde' in brown (slightly faded) lower right. - In very fine, colour-fresh condition. Minimally abraded at the edges. With a photo-certificate by Martin Urban, Seebüll, dated 9 July 1987 Provenance Sotheby's, Munich, auction Deutsche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, 28 Oct. 1987, lot 71; Private collection, Bavaria Emil Nolde’s work is associated with luminously colourful flower gardens, dramatically turbulent seas and landscapes immersed in colour. His figural images, including portraits, depictions of couples and Biblical scenes, present an equally important complex of works. Nolde’s autobiography indicates how significant these works were to the artist himself: “People are my pictures. Laugh, rejoice, weep or be happy; you are my pictures, the sound of your voices, the essence of your characters in all their variety, you are the colours of the painter” (Emil Nolde, Autobiographie, Köln 2002, vol. II, p. 144). Nolde’s figural images also include the often small-format watercolours he began creating around 1920. Regarding the use of colour, the “Frauenkopf im Profil”, done in violet and a luminous blue, represents an outstanding example from this series of works. While the outlines of the model are vaguely delineated in black ink, Nolde has allowed the watercolours of the hair, loose dress and background to flow freely. But this watercolour would not be a Nolde if it were to become impossible to clearly identify the image of a young woman in spite of the scarcely differentiated application of the colours. Even if it is not a portrait in the traditional sense, the suggestion of a smile, the attentive gaze and the raised right arm reveal a character that is not indifferent to the viewer. “I didn’t feel bound to any natural model”, writes Nolde, “and occasionally painted with a somewhat audacious smile […]. A stroke with my brush or finger [conveyed] the sensed movement or the character of a figure” (cited in: Emil Nolde. Figur, exh. cat. Galerie Thomas 2021, p. 38).