The Topos of the Still Life
Emil Nolde’s still lifes are characterized by mysterious, serene, and expressive arrangements in which he unites different objects into a harmonious whole. With a keen eye and a sensitive artistic approach, he finds items from his everyday surroundings and presents them in striking, painterly close-up scenes. His choice of objects allows him to create ever-changing combinations, resulting in ever-evolving compositions.
In connection with his visits to the Ethnological Museum, which began around 1909, and especially his journey to the South Seas, Nolde began to assemble his own collection of objects that would appear in his still lifes. This collection not only expanded the diversity of his visual worlds but also revealed the artist’s connection to the objects he chose. He viewed them in the context of the human condition, highlighted their characteristics, and treated them with equal attention, awakening the viewer’s interest in their origins. At the same time, the depictions offer insights into their cultural meanings and functions, which Nolde conveys through vivid and dynamic compositions.

Two Passions United
The principle of transience, which underlies the long tradition of still-life painting, plays a rather subordinate role in Nolde’s work. Nevertheless, the bright yellow flowers from Emil Nolde’s garden in Seebüll might be understood as vanitas symbols, given their limited remaining time. Emil Nolde painted the work “Wajanfigur und Blumen” (Wayang Figure and Flowers) in 1928. Before and after this, he also created other still lifes featuring flowers and artifacts from his collection. One could speak of a series in which Nolde explores the interplay of objects. In this painting, he stages a Javanese shadow puppet alongside a magnificent bouquet of yellow flowers. These could be sunflowers, though they might also be yellow coneflowers or echinacea. Some of the flower heads reach toward the puppet on the left side of the painting, which in turn appears to reach out to touch them. The puppet is fairly accurately depicted as one of the figures from Nolde’s collection. “Wayang” roughly translates to “divine shadow spirit.” In Indonesian culture, these puppets are understood as a link to the afterlife and are used in ritual puppet plays to summon the spirits of the ancestral world. In this still life, Nolde brings this shadow being to life, forges a connection to the flowers' transience, and lets it interact with the earthen harvests from his garden in an enigmatic way.

Nolde and the Exotic
In 1913–14, Emil Nolde and his wife Ada embarked on a journey to what was then the German colony of New Guinea. Organized by the German Colonial Office, the trip took them through Siberia, Japan, and China to the South Seas. The return journey passed through Ceylon, Burma, and Indonesia, where he most likely acquired the Wayang figure in our work. This expedition left a lasting impression on Nolde and shaped his future work. He discovered artifacts that he integrated into his existing collection of figures, masks, and the like. His interest in the extraordinary, in opposing forces, in the authentic, and in the “primitive”—together with the flowers from his own garden—enriched his still-life paintings. “The collection contains the most diverse items: […] The large painted Uli figures from New Guinea, bronze and porcelain figurines from China, Korea, and Java, masks, African, Egyptian, Indian, Pre-Columbian, and medieval objects […]. They stood and hung in the Seebüll house and in his Berlin apartment alongside his paintings and among the figurines he had crafted himself. They were part of his life, part of his world, and part of the painter’s experience” (Martin Urban, long-time director of the Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation, quoted from: Exhibition catalog Emil Nolde, Masken und Figuren, Bielefeld 1971, n.p.). In this sense, Nolde’s collection served as a tool and an integral part of his painting practice.

A Glimpse into his Private Life
“Wajanfigur und Blumen” (1928) is a particularly beautiful document of Emil Nolde’s passions. Flowers from his beloved garden in Seebüll—possibly arranged by Ada herself in the green vase on a purple tablecloth—meet the Wayang figure from his collection of artifacts from around the world. As such, this still life offers us a glimpse into Nolde’s everyday life. In this still life, he combined the extraordinary with the personal, transforming it into a colorful, mysterious expression of incredible artistic mastery. [AW]