Künstler

Emil Nolde

Title

Jägers Haus auf Alsen

Year
1909
Category
Material / Technique
Dimensions
Bildmaß 73 × 88,5 cm
Rahmenmaß 90,5 × 106,5 × 4,3 cm
Related Digital Projects
Acquisition details
Erworben 1979 aus Privatbesitz
Credits
Emil Nolde, Jägers Haus auf Alsen, 1909, Öl auf Leinwand, Brücke-Museum, © Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde

Provenienz

Das Gemälde hatte seit 1919 zur Sammlung der Hamburger Kunsthalle gehört, bevor es im Juli 1937 im Rahmen der nationalsozialistischen Aktion Entartete Kunst beschlagnahmt worden ist. 1940 wurden die Kunsthändler Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895–1956) und Bernhard A. Böhmer (1892–1945) vom Deutschen Reich mit der Veräußerung des Werks beauftragt. Welchen Weg das Gemälde bis 1946 nahm, ist uns bislang nicht bekannt. Ab diesem Jahr ist es in der Sammlung von Edgar (1902–1994) und Greta Horstmann (Hamburg/München) nachweisbar. Ihr Sohn, der Kunsthändler Rainer Horstmann (Hamburg), verkaufte dem Brücke-Museum das Gemälde 1979.

Exhibitions (selection)

Literature (selection)

  • Kestner-Gesellschaft Hannover (Hg.), Emil Nolde, Ausst.-Kat. Kestner-Gesellschaft Hannover, 1948.

  • Leopold Reidemeister, Das Brücke-Museum, Berlin 1984.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller, Das Brücke-Museum Berlin, Prestel, München 1996.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller (Hg.), Brücke. La nascita dell´espressionismo, Ausst.-Kat. Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta Milan, Mazzotta, Milano 1999.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller (Hg.), Die Brücke. Meisterwerke aus dem Brücke-Museum Berlin, Ausst.-Kat. Brücke-Museum Berlin, Hirmer Verlag, München 2000.

  • Brücke und Berlin. 100 Jahre Expressionismus, Ausst.-Kat. Neue Nationalgalerie, Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz, Nicolai, Berlin 2005.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller (Hg.), Brücke-Museum Berlin, Malerei und Plastik. Kommentiertes Verzeichnis der Bestände, Hirmer Verlag, München 2006.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller (Hg.), Erich Heckel. Der große Expressionist. Werke aus dem Brücke-Museum Berlin, Ausst.-Kat. Stadthalle und Zehntscheuer Balingen, Hirmer Verlag, München 2013.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller, Nolde. Der Maler, Hirmer Verlag, München 2016.

  • Magdalena M. Moeller (Hg.), Brücke Museum Highlights, Hirmer Verlag, München 2017.

Details

Inscription/Signature
Signiert unten rechts: Emil Nolde (Signatur)
Nicht bezeichnet (Bezeichnung)

Inventory Number
4/79

Catalog Number
Urban 292

(Aya Soika)

About the Work

Emil Nolde, Jägers Haus auf Alsen (Jäger’s House on Alsen), 1909

Emil Nolde’s later criticism of Impressionism is surprising in view of this painting; rich in contrast yet still rendered in small brushstrokes, Nolde applied oil paints to the canvas aiming for a pictorial effect fundamentally different from that of his flat painting style in subsequent years. It is still very much characteristic of his work, even if only from a distance: in the foreground the flowering bushes, in the background the neighbour’s farmhouse. A path leads the eye to the entryway. While Nolde spent winters in Berlin, he used summers to work in an old fishing cottage on the island of Als (Alsen) in the Baltic Sea. There, beginning in 1906, he created numerous garden scenes with colourful flowerbeds. The gardens on the island fascinated the artist since he could use them to experiment with the visual effects of his oil paintings. In his autobiography Jahre der Kämpfe (Years of Struggle, 1934), he emphasises the near magical appeal of the summer flowers: “It was in the middle of summer. The colours of the flowers attracted me irresistibly, and almost immediately I would get to painting. […] The blooming colours of the flowers and the purity of these colours, I loved them.” For Nolde nature became an irresistible temptation. In his later reflections on his artistic development, the discovery of the expressive capacity of colour played as big a role for him as it did for the works of his younger Brücke colleagues. Nolde nevertheless turned his back on the community by the end of 1907 after less than two years of membership.

The story of this painting’s provenance is especially interesting. While still in Nolde’s possession, the painting was first exhibited as early as 1910 at the Galerie Commeter in Hamburg and shortly thereafter at the Kunstverein in Münster and Jena. In 1919, he finally sold the work to the Hamburger Kunsthalle, where it enriched the institution’s foundational collection of modern art. The fact that this landscape painting was among those removed as “degenerate” in 1937 must have been confounding to Nolde. From his perspective, his aesthetic motifs and expressive style corresponded to a “Nordic,” genuinely German form of art, which would have been compatible with the ideas of the Nazi regime – not least because he was himself an adherent of Nationalist Socialist ideology. The painting survived the Second World War unscathed in the possession of the art dealer Bernhard Boehmer, who was entrusted with the “liquidation” of the works. It returned to a public collection when it was acquired by the Brücke-Museum in 1979.

(Camilo ) Interview
03:26
(Felix Denk, Johann Voigt )
Are We Still Allowed to Listen to Michael Jackson?
(Aya Soika )
About the Work
(Sonja Eismann )
What is a canon?
(Camilo ) Poor
01:26
(Camilo ) Separation
00:35
(Evelina ) Perfect Situation
00:23
(Ramin ) Snapshot
00:24
(Susheela ) Fast
00:23
(Susheela ) Structural Problem
01:28
(Evelina ) Political
00:04
Associations
00:32
Questions
00:29
Imprint