South Seas Landscape (Primary Title)
Emil Nolde, German, 1867 - 1956 (Artist)
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 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.
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