Sale: 459 / Modern Art I, Dec. 09. 2017 in Munich Lot 620

 

620
Emil Nolde
Selbstporträt, 1910/1912.
Watercolor
Estimate:
€ 80,000 / $ 86,400
Sold:
€ 100,000 / $ 108,000

(incl. surcharge)
Selbstporträt. 1910 /1912.
Watercolor and pen and ink drawing.
Lower left signed. On firm brownish wove paper. 48.7 x 30 cm (19.1 x 11.8 in) , the full sheet.
Only self-portrait from Nolde's graphic and pictorial oeuvre ever offered on the international auction market. Of utmost rarity.

With a photo expertise in copy from Prof. Dr. Martin Urban, Foundation Ada and Emil Nolde Seebüll, from 28 February 1987, it was confirmed by Prof. Dr. Martin Reuther, director of the foundation, on 21st November 2011.

PROVENANCE: Private collection New York.
Private collection Berlin.
Private collection Southern Germany.

"The focus is always on the eyes that look straight at the observer with a piercing glance, the shyness, that is often said about Nolde, can not be felt."
Caroline Dieterich, curator Foundation Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde's unusually impressive self-portrait is part of a complex of works in which the artist portrayed himself over the course of his long life. The exploration of the self has a tradition in western painting that dates back to the sixteenth century and which is closely linked with the emancipation of the painter as artist and creator of his works. In the grand Albrecht Dürer exhibition, shown in Nuremberg this year, the genre of the self-portrait is shown as one of the most important components in the artist's creation. From Rembrandt to the artists of Modernism, a large number of outstanding self-portraits deliver proof of the artistic occupation with the self. Nolde sees himself in almost full frontal view and on the full sheet, entirely doing without additional ingredients in order to draw the observer's attention to the essential properties. The peering, slightly oversized eyes increase the suggestive effect that characterizes this self-portrait. [KD].



620
Emil Nolde
Selbstporträt, 1910/1912.
Watercolor
Estimate:
€ 80,000 / $ 86,400
Sold:
€ 100,000 / $ 108,000

(incl. surcharge)