The watercolor “Weggabelung” (“Crossroads”) from 1909 is an impressive testimony to Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s creative period in the North German artists’ colony of Dangast. From 1907 to 1912, Schmidt-Rottluff visited the small North Sea resort of Dangast, initially together with Heckel or Pechstein. During this pivotal period, the artist developed a new, powerful visual language characterized by intense color contrasts, reduced forms, and an intensified emotional expressiveness. He primarily painted the landscape of the quiet coastal town, attempting to capture its ambience with his newly acquired expressiveness.
The work does not depict an idyllic landscape in a traditional sense; instead, it presents a scene of diverging paths—a motif that allows for symbolic interpretation beyond its geographical meaning. It evokes associations with issues such as orientation, decision-making, and movement.
The dynamic composition is particularly striking, resulting from an impulsive brushstroke and the dynamic arrangement of paths and surfaces. Schmidt-Rottluff dispenses with perspective depth in favor of a flat, rhythmic composition in which, on the one hand, the colors interact, and, on the other hand, each stroke stands side by side on an equal footing. The dominant tones of blue, green, and red lend the watercolor an intense, almost pulsating energy – a typical contrast of the “Brücke” Expressionists. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff put it this way: “The rhythm, the rush of color, that's what always captivates and preoccupies me” (Karl Schmidt-Rottluff to Gustav Schiefler, May 1907, quoted from: Gerhard Wietek, Schmidt-Rottluff. Oldenburger Jahre 1907–1912, Mainz 1995, p. 119).
“Weggabelung” thus marks not only a topographical location but also an artistic turning point: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, inspired by nature in Dangast, began to transform the visible outer world into inner images of great formal freedom and expressiveness. The watercolor is a prime document of a period in which the artist broke away from academic traditions, finding his very distinctive visual language.
Magdalena Moeller comments on the watercolors from this period: "The watercolors from 1909 can be regarded as a homogeneous and brilliant group of works. They are among Schmidt-Rottluff's greatest contributions" (M. Moeller, in: Exhibition catalog, Werke aus der Slg. des Brücke-Museums Berlin, Hypo Kulturstiftung, Munich 1997, p. 19). [MH]