South Seas Landscape (Primary Title)

Emil Nolde, German, 1867 - 1956 (Artist)

ca. 1914-15
German
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 28 1/4 × 34 1/4 in. (71.76 × 87 cm)
Framed: 36 3/4 × 42 1/2 in. (93.35 × 107.95 cm)
2014.10

Nolde traveled to the South Seas in 1913 as part of a cultural expedition. This painting, likely based on that trip, reflects the artist’s belief in the “elemental, animated forces of nature,” and his rough brushstrokes and thick handling of paint mirror the untamed and unspoiled energy of the natural world as he perceived it. Additionally, Nolde’s hand-carved, primitive-motif frame demonstrates an intentional departure from the typical gilded museum frame.

This was one of the few works that Max Fischer was able to bring to the United States when he fled Nazi Germany in 1935.

Gift of Dr. George and Mrs. Marylou Fischer
Murrer, Werner, et al. Unzertrennlich: Rahmen Und Bilder Der Brücke-Künstler. Koenig Books, 2020. cat no 40, pp 164-167
©artist or artist’s estate

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