埃米爾·諾爾德

Paul & Martha Rauert, Hamburg (acquired from the artist in 1910)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Hamburg, Galerie Commeter; Essen, Kunstverein & Jena, Kunstverein, Emil Nolde, 1910
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Werke neuerer Kunst aus Hamburger Privatbesitz, 1917, no. 94
Dresden, Städtisches Kunstausstellungsgebäude; Hamburg, Kunstverein; Kiel, Kunsthalle; Essen, Museum Folkwang & Wiesbaden, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Emil Nolde - Jubiläumsausstellung zum 60. Geburtstag,1927, nos. 17 & 9
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Das Bild der Landschaft, 1934, no. 120
Hamburg, Kunstverein, Emil Nolde, 1947
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art & Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, Emil Nolde, 1963, no. 8
Schleswig, Schloß Gottorf, 1996 (on loan)
Hamburg, Ernst Barlach Haus; Freiburg, Museum für Moderne Kunst; The Hague, Kunsthalle; Bad Homburg, Altana-Kulturstiftung, Sinclair-Haus; Davos, Kirchner Museum; Bremen, Paula Modersohn Haus & Salzburg, Salzburger Landessammlungen Rupertinum, Nolde, Schmidt-Rottluff und ihre Freunde. Die Sammlung Martha und Paul Rauert, Hamburg 1905-1958, 1999-2003, no. 75, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Schleswig, Schloß Gottorf, Brücke Almanach - Expressionismus auf Schloß Gottorf, 2002
Jena, Städtisches Museum, Emil Nolde in Jena, 2003
Hamburg, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Die "Brücke" und die Moderne 1904-1914, 2004-05, no. 118, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Jena, Kunstsammlung im Stadtmuseum Jena, Sammlung Martha und Paul Rauert. Die Künstler der Brücke in Jena, 2005, no. 64, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Berlin, Brücke-Museum, Brücke. Die Geburt des deutschen Expressionismus, 2005-06, no. 52, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Oldenburg, Landesmuseum, 100 Jahre Brücke in Oldenburg, 2008
Aschaffenburg, Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche, Expressionismus - Auftakt zur Moderne in der Natur, 2009

 

Artist's Handlist, 1910, a, no. 183
Artist's Handlist, 1910, b, no. 184
Artist's Handlist, 1910, c, no. 205
Letter from Martha Rauert to Nolde, 28th March 1910
Artist's Handlist, 1930, listed as '1909 Waldweg'
Martin Urban, Emil Nolde. Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil-Paintings, London, 1990, vol. I, no. 287, illustrated p. 256

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. This work is in excellent original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly less yellow in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Emil Nolde's compelling Waldweg is an outstanding example of his important landscape paintings. Nolde's highly direct technique using thick impasto to build an almost relief-like surface of paint marked him out to his younger Brücke contemporaries such as Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff as a truly innovative artist, one whose style greatly influenced their formative career. In works such as Waldweg and Wald painted in the same year (fig. 1), Nolde displays his desire to provide not just a representation of nature, but to express his emotional response to it, to create a visual equivalent of a physical experience. The artist remarked: 'I think it is most important to give freedom to art and one should not force art into a corset. One should be guided by nature whilst lending a free spirit to one's fantasy and experience. Whatever is depicted, be it truth, fantasy or poetry, the best paintings are the ones which seem true, natural, organic and alive' (quoted in Emil Nolde (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthalle Köln, Cologne, 1973, p. 38, translated from German). Nolde portrays his landscapes with an undisguised symbolic significance, exploiting the imposing woodland as a metaphor for the awesome power of nature.

The intensity with which he executed his landscapes seems to dispense with traditional compositional devices. In the present work the forest path is depicted in bright blues and scarlet hues that leap from the surface rather than recede into a conventional perspective whilst the voluminous dapple-greens of the foliage are equally vibrant. The immediate impact of his works conveys the artist's powerful emotional response. Nolde stated that  'In art I fight for unconscious creation', in a letter to his friend Hans Fehr, reiterating elsewhere that 'the quicker a painting is done, the better it is... When inspiration falters, even for a moment, barren reason leaps to the rescue, and then the work is ruined. If only I could catch it, I would pin reason against the wall and give it a good hiding' (quoted in Max Sauerlandt (ed.), Emil Nolde: Briefe aus den Jahren 1894-1926, Hamburg, 1967, p. 31).

Discussing the importance of colour in Nolde's art Peter Selz writes: 'Nolde subordinates all other pictorial elements to colour [...]. It was no longer employed primarily for its representational value or for its decorative quality, but was more symbolic and expressive. Nolde always retained contact with nature, but he seemed to anticipate Kandinsky's later concepts of the spiritual value of pure colour as an expression of human emotion. Nolde said that he often considered himself only a medium through which colour could exercise its powerful effect on canvas'. During the early 1900s Kandinsky was painting in a similarily energetic manner as that with which Nolde executed the present work (fig. 2). Nolde stated: 'Colours, the materials of the painter; colours in their own lives, weeping and laughing, dream and bliss, hot and sacred, like love songs and the erotic, like songs and glorious chorals! Colours in vibration, pealing like silver bells and clanging like bronze bells, proclaiming happiness, passion and love, soul, blood and death' (quoted in Peter Selz, German Expressionist Painting, Los Angeles, 1974, p. 87).

In the present work the raw energy that is captured by Nolde's rapid brushwork displays not only the vitality of the nature he depicts but the virulence with which he responds to it. The dense richness of his palette and idiosyncratic approach was particularly influential to his fellow members of the Brücke. The enthusiasm with which younger artists such as Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff and Heckel received his works is shown in the way the incorporated elements of his exuberant style into their own work. It is works such as Waldweg that gained Nolde a reputation as one of the pioneers of Expressionism.

The first owners of this work were Martha and Paul Rauert in whose family it has remained until now. Their remarkable collection of Expressionist art was acquired directly from the artists themselves with whom they were friends. In 1910 Martha Rauert wrote to the artist mentioning the present work:

Dear Mr Nolde!

I have to tell you how beautiful and rich our home has become because of your paintings and we think about you probably about 10 times a day! First I received the forest picture [the present work] which my husband and I chose together; then as a big and happy surprise the birches in the snow and yesterday as an Easter present the wonderful etching of the freeport. When your ears start ringing, you will know who is talking about you!

I hope your wife enjoyed the rather exhausting stay in Hamburg so that you will repeat it soon. You know that we have your word, that next time you will visit you will come to our house in order for you to see where your magnificent pictures have gone.

With warmest regards, also from my husband, to you and your wife,

Yours sincerely,

Martha Rauert

Fig. 1, Emil Nolde, Wald, 1909, oil on canvas, Albertina, Vienna, on permanent loan from the Rita und Herbert Batliner Foundation, Lichtenstein


Fig. 2, Wassily Kandinsky, Park von St. Cloud - Dunkle Allee, 1906, oil on canvas, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris