Emil Nolde Lot n° 41

Emil Nolde Yellow Callas Around 1925/1930 Watercolor on Japan laid paper. 47.3 x 34.2 cm. Framed under glass. Signed 'Nolde' in black lower left. With a photo-certificate by Manfred Reuther, Klockries, dated February 12, 2023. The work is registered and documented in his archive under the number "Nolde A - 265/2023". Provenance Private collection, Hamburg; Math. Lempertz'sche Kunstversteigerung 482, Cologne, 21.5.1965, lot 687; Private collection, Rhineland With its extravagantly shaped, asymmetrical calyxes, the calla is one of the most elegant flowers immortalized by Emil Nolde in his famous still lifes. He usually combined them with other flower varieties in contrasting colors, but here he stages the exotic beauties alone, filling the picture. Against a softly tinted background, the leaves and slender stems rise up in a complex network of lines and planes, crowned by two bright yellow flowers. By using various shades of green and a metallic light blue, Nolde masterfully reproduces the texture of the firm, dark leaves, whose smooth surfaces strongly reflect the incident light. Despite this proximity to the natural appearance of the plants, the painter abstracted their forms into delicate areas of color that stand out clearly and luminously against the delicate silver-grey.