Red and yellow poppies

Details

With a photo expertise by Professor Dr. Manfred Reuther, Klockries, dated 11.10.2023. This work is registered and documented in the archive of Professor Manfred Reuther under the number Nolde A-287/2023. Provenance: Private ownership, Southern Germany, in family ownership for several decades.

Descrizione

• Colourful flowers are the central motif of Nolde’s work
• His flower watercolours were created without preliminary drawings directly before the motif in Nolde’s garden
• Nolde chooses a close up view and brings the bright flowers close to the viewer.

Both individual flowers as well as colourful beds and gardens form the central motifs in Nolde’s oeuvre. Influenced by his mother’s flower garden in the small village of Nolde, the farmer’s son learned early on to appreciate “the sprouting, the blooming, the bright” flowers; they “bloomed for her and my joy.” Nolde later planted gardens in his rural residences in Alsen, Utenwarf and Seebüll that inspired him to create his colourful paintings and virtuoso watercolours. Nolde painted his watercolour florals directly in the garden; putting them onto paper without preliminary drawings. He chose a narrow viewpoint, bringing the bright poppy flowers close to the observer and foregoing a defined background. The individual flowers shine brightly in their colours, their calyx wide open, they barely overlap each other and each motif is given the space to fully unfurl. Nolde builds up the colours carefully, placing many layers on top of each other. With a paint-soaked brush he traces each bright red petal and hints at the dark depths of the calyxes. He uses the thin consistency of watercolour to indicate the transparency of some of the petals.