Emil Nolde - Magnolien und Fuchsien
Emil Nolde
Magnolien und Fuchsien
Circa 1925
Watercolour on Japan paper. 47 x 35.8 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde' upper right in black India ink. - In fine condition with fresh colours.
“Yellow can paint happiness and also pain. There is a red of fire, of blood and of roses. There is a silvery blue, a sky blue and a stormy blue. Every colour bears its soul within it, pleasing or repulsing and stimulating me” (Note from Emil Nolde’s journal, 30 December 1942, cited in: Martin Urban, Emil Nolde. Blumen und Tiere, Köln 1980, p. 36).
Emil Nolde’s watercolour “Magnolien und Fuchsien” exemplifies the central role of colour in his work: a composition of boldly colourful flowers unfolds before the washes in cool nuances of blue and purple in the background. The fuchsia glow in vermilion, the magnolia blossoms in delicately merging washes of pink and purple; a fresh, springtime green permeates the leaves and calyces. Additional magnolia blossoms shine as centres of brightness whose wide-open flower heads reveal a view inside their flowing yellow interiors. The blossoms’ effectiveness derives not from botanical precision but from the radiant, autonomous power of the colour that shapes and permeates them.
The artist has deliberately utilised the specific material qualities of watercolours and Japan paper: applying the paints to moistened paper generates intensely saturated colours, soft transitions and a characteristic efflorescence along the edges. The margins of the cream-white magnolias’ petals are partly shaped through negative forms where the paper has been left unpainted. This technique invests the work with a vibrant vitality and underscores the spontaneous, unmediated application of the paint.
Flowers and gardens are among the constantly recurring themes in Nolde’s oeuvre. Influenced by his mother’s garden in the village of Nolde in northern Schleswig, he developed a lifelong fascination with the blooming manifestations of nature at a young age. He began devoting increasing attention to watercolours in around 1918/20, after initially painting flowers primarily in oils. In this technique he found an ideal medium for freely developing his colour-based ideas while simultaneously preserving a direct link with nature. Within this context the flower becomes the vehicle of a heightened, almost mystical effect that is based in colour and points beyond the purely visible.
Certificate
With a photo-certificate by Martin Urban dated 21 August1981 and a confirmation by Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde dated 18 March 2026.
The work is registered in the Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde with the number Fr.A.1291 and will be included in a future catalogue raisonné of watercolours and drawings by Emil Nolde.
Provenance
Buchhandlung Fredebeul & Koenen, Essen (around 1928); Private ownership, Essen; Private ownership, St. Gallen: Lempertz, Cologne, Auction 613, 31.5.1986, lot 757; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
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Emil Nolde
Magnolien und Fuchsien
Circa 1925
Watercolour on Japan paper. 47 x 35.8 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde' upper right in black India ink. - In fine condition with fresh colours.
“Yellow can paint happiness and also pain. There is a red of fire, of blood and of roses. There is a silvery blue, a sky blue and a stormy blue. Every colour bears its soul within it, pleasing or repulsing and stimulating me” (Note from Emil Nolde’s journal, 30 December 1942, cited in: Martin Urban, Emil Nolde. Blumen und Tiere, Köln 1980, p. 36).
Emil Nolde’s watercolour “Magnolien und Fuchsien” exemplifies the central role of colour in his work: a composition of boldly colourful flowers unfolds before the washes in cool nuances of blue and purple in the background. The fuchsia glow in vermilion, the magnolia blossoms in delicately merging washes of pink and purple; a fresh, springtime green permeates the leaves and calyces. Additional magnolia blossoms shine as centres of brightness whose wide-open flower heads reveal a view inside their flowing yellow interiors. The blossoms’ effectiveness derives not from botanical precision but from the radiant, autonomous power of the colour that shapes and permeates them.
The artist has deliberately utilised the specific material qualities of watercolours and Japan paper: applying the paints to moistened paper generates intensely saturated colours, soft transitions and a characteristic efflorescence along the edges. The margins of the cream-white magnolias’ petals are partly shaped through negative forms where the paper has been left unpainted. This technique invests the work with a vibrant vitality and underscores the spontaneous, unmediated application of the paint.
Flowers and gardens are among the constantly recurring themes in Nolde’s oeuvre. Influenced by his mother’s garden in the village of Nolde in northern Schleswig, he developed a lifelong fascination with the blooming manifestations of nature at a young age. He began devoting increasing attention to watercolours in around 1918/20, after initially painting flowers primarily in oils. In this technique he found an ideal medium for freely developing his colour-based ideas while simultaneously preserving a direct link with nature. Within this context the flower becomes the vehicle of a heightened, almost mystical effect that is based in colour and points beyond the purely visible.
Certificate
With a photo-certificate by Martin Urban dated 21 August1981 and a confirmation by Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde dated 18 March 2026.
The work is registered in the Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde with the number Fr.A.1291 and will be included in a future catalogue raisonné of watercolours and drawings by Emil Nolde.
Provenance
Buchhandlung Fredebeul & Koenen, Essen (around 1928); Private ownership, Essen; Private ownership, St. Gallen: Lempertz, Cologne, Auction 613, 31.5.1986, lot 757; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
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