Watercolor and India ink drawing
Signed lower right. On fine laid paper (with watermark Johnson Mill). 27,7 x 21,5 cm (10,9 x 8,4 in), size of sheet
The watercolor is part of a series of portrait heads made in 1910/11.

This work is accompanied by a photo expertise by Dr. Manfred Reuther, Foundation Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde, from 14 January 2009. The work is registered there.

PROVENANCE: Collection Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation to 1972.
Galerie Hoffmann, Hamburg.
Sotheby's London, 2 July 1980, lot 328.
Private collection London.

Emil Nolde refused to bring artistic techniques to perfection, as it was also the case when he began to familiarize with watercolor painting. He was in search for a method that allowed coincidence as an artistic means, thus leaving room for an immediate momentum in the painting process. Nolde‘s watercolor paintings were inspired by his surroundings, capturing them with a spontaneous stroke of the brush. He contours the motifs as if quickly jotting down some notes. The free application of the color makes for a clearer definition. The result is an image of the instant moment, its expressiveness bound to the execution of the object or the person. [SM].