For Nolde, the depiction of the two types of flowers is not subject to a scientific and precise study; rather, the artist emphasises the sensuality of plants in his expressive colour and form experiments. 

The work Tigerlilien und Dahlien (Tiger Lilies and Dahlias) can be considered paradigmatic and exemplary for the work of the German artist Emil Nolde. Nolde was born in 1867 as Emil Hansen in the town of Nolde in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany, now part of Denmark). Only in the course of the wedding with the Danish actress Ada Vilstrup in 1902, the artist takes on the name of his birthplace. 

After a training as a wood sculptor and technical drawer, Nolde increasingly focused on painting and successfully created postcards with mountain motifs. The success of his postcards enabled him to live as a freelance artist, so that Nolde could deepen his own studies at the Académie Julian in Paris. The intensity of his colour applications and the dynamic brushstroke fascinated the representatives of the artist group Die Brücke. Following the invitation of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Nolde joined Die Brücke, but left the group after only one year.¹ His expressive style and his choice of colour lead to his stylistic classification as a principal representative of Expressionism. In his main residence in Berlin, Nolde rapidly expanded his artistic network so that between 1910-12 he was represented in larger exhibitions in Germany. During that time, he realised some of his first religious pictures, such as Das Leben Christi (The Life of Christ). In addition to the Christian motifs, however, it is above all his still lifes and flower paintings that are still considered to be Nolde’s trademark. In 1926, Ada and Emil Nolde moved to the old estate of Seebüll on the German-Danish border, which was their preferred accommodation for the summer months. Seebüll is nowadays the headquarters of the Nolde Foundation. The house and the garden are designed according to the couple’s own designs and plans. The garden with a variety of different flowers and plants encouraged the artist to a comprehensive series of floral watercolours, for which Nolde chose the wet-in-wet technique. Tigerlilien und Dahlien is also part of this wet-inwet group of works.² The watercolour technique combines painterly and graphic elements; in Tigerlilien und Dahlien for example, the flower stalks of the lilies and the leaves are of fine and delicate lines, while the flowing paint sets picturesque accents. Such juxtaposition of different techniques creates fantastic and exotic effects. It is striking that the colours in Tigerlilien und Dahlien in the spaces between the plants in the lower half of the depicted leaves flow together to a colour field of bluish-reddish tones. This coloured area contrasts the dark background in the upper part of the picture, against which the contours and the intense colours stand out all the more effectively. For Nolde, the depiction of the two types of flowers is not subject to a scientific and precise study; rather, the artist emphasises the sensuality of plants in his expressive colour and form experiments. 

The period around 1930, when he also painted Tigerlilien und Dahlien, was a comparatively calm and successful time for Nolde. In 1931 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts and publishes the first volume of his four-volume biography.³ With the takeover of the National Socialists in 1933, turbulent times began for Nolde, personally, politically and professionally. He distinguished himself as a supporter of National Socialism, took part in 1933 as a guest of honour at the Munich anniversary banquet of the Hitler-Ludendorff coup and joined the regional party of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein. Despite this political commitment and opportunism, in 1937 more than 1,000 of his works were confiscated, defamed and presented at the exhibition Degenerate Art in Munich. In 1941 he was banned from selling his pictures, exhibiting them and even painting and producing pictures. During this time until the end of World War II, Nolde repeatedly turned to his favourite motif of flowers. In small scale, he created a comprehensive series of the so-called Ungemalte Bilder (Unpainted Pictures), which he partially transferred from 1945 to larger formats. Active until his death in 1956, Nolde left behind a vast corpus largely made up of watercolours, more than 7,000, which testifies to the special relevance of this technique for the artist. 

Veronica Peselmann

¹ Frankfurt-Humlebaek 2014, p. 281; London-Copenhagen 1995-96, p. 196.

² Seebüll 2011.

³ Nolde 1976.