Emil Nolde's portraits convey much of the painter's attitude to life. Almost shy of people, as he lived with his wife Ada in Seebüll, he nevertheless occasionally painted portraits, mostly of young women, who fill the entire picture with a mysterious aura against an imaginary background. As anonymous as the sitters remained, as mystically transfigured as Nolde sees them, they are simultaneously aloof and present. The twilight darkness many of his sitters are surrounded by makes them mysterious and remote. And yet there is the sensual moment of a dominant colorfulness, which Emil Nolde also applies in his portraits as a defining means of expression. It dominates a composition that is not without forcefulness. In this work, too, Nolde demonstrates his mastery of the watercolor, which finds its fulfillment in the unexpected density of the color values. [EH]