Blühende Kakteen (rot und gelb). 1923/24.
Watercolour.
Signed lower right, with inscription "2" upper left. On fine Japon laid paper. 48 : 35,4 cm (18,8 : 13,9 in), the full sheet. During the winter of 1923-24, Nolde remained in Berlin, where he was a regular visitor to the municipal zoo, the aquarium and the botanical gardens. From these visits emerged large watercolours of exotic animals and plants, in which the painter abandoned himself to the charms of what was both foreign and exotic. He was less interested in zoological and botanical details - what aroused his enthusiasm was the saturated colour of the bloom, which he painted wet-into-wet on Japon. Our watercolour lives from the contrast between the cactus blooms and leaves - a light-coloured tracery of forms stands out against dark, block-like parts of the composition. The blooms have been given a floating, unreal quality just as the painter may have felt about them in the wintery grey of the metropolis. [NB]
EXPERTISE: This work is accompanied by a photo expertise signed by Dr. Manfred Reuther, Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde, dated 7 November 2001. The work is registered there
PROVENIENZ: Private collection Saxony.
Private collection Lower Saxony.

This sheet belongs to a series of watercolours with orchids and blooming cacti, made in the Berlin botanic garden in 1923/24
All in all slightly faded. Minimally bumped in places of corners. With remains of a former mounting on verso of left and upper margin, minimally overlapping. With minor isolated crease marks. With minimal craquelé in the dark red areas in the left margin.