Max Pechstein, German, 1881-1955
Title: Departing Boats (Nidden)
Date: 1920
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
67 x 90 cm
Signed: on verso, lower right: HMP 20
Credit Line: Purchased, 2006
Object Number: NGI.2006.11
DescriptionPechstein painted this work during his final stay at Nidden, a remote fishing village on the Baltic Sea, which he had visited regularly since 1909. According to the artist's son, Max K. Pechstein, the picture is the twelfth in a series of Nidden paintings titled 'Fischerleben' ('The Lives of Fishermen').
In 1906 Pechstein joined the Dresden-based artists' group Die Brücke (The Bridge). The Brücke artists were influenced by the expressive, highly coloured paintings of the Fauves in Paris. They were also interested in African and Oceanic tribal art and introduced so-called 'primitive' motifs to their paintings and woodcut prints. In 1914 Pechstein emulated the visits that Paul Gauguin made to Tahiti in the 1890s by travelling to the Palau Islands in the Pacific. There he studied native carvings and paintings and further developed his characteristic flat angular style of painting.
Pechstein came to regard the remote village of Nidden as an idyllic retreat from modern industrialised society. In this painting the fishermen are not depicted as individuals but are stylised in a neo-romantic manner to form a community united through work and nature. Pechstein effectively draws upon his long-standing interests in native folk life, tribal art and Fauve colour to create an Expressionist vision of rural harmony.
In 1906 Pechstein joined the Dresden-based artists' group Die Brücke (The Bridge). The Brücke artists were influenced by the expressive, highly coloured paintings of the Fauves in Paris. They were also interested in African and Oceanic tribal art and introduced so-called 'primitive' motifs to their paintings and woodcut prints. In 1914 Pechstein emulated the visits that Paul Gauguin made to Tahiti in the 1890s by travelling to the Palau Islands in the Pacific. There he studied native carvings and paintings and further developed his characteristic flat angular style of painting.
Pechstein came to regard the remote village of Nidden as an idyllic retreat from modern industrialised society. In this painting the fishermen are not depicted as individuals but are stylised in a neo-romantic manner to form a community united through work and nature. Pechstein effectively draws upon his long-standing interests in native folk life, tribal art and Fauve colour to create an Expressionist vision of rural harmony.
ProvenanceMax Osborn, Berlin; Private Collection acquired in 1950s; by descent; on loan to Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, from 1989-2006; Sotheby's, London, 20 June 2006, Impressionism and Modern Art, Day Sale, lot 430
Label TextPechstein painted this scene at Nidden, a remote fishing village by the Baltic Sea. It belongs to a group of works titled Fischerleben (The Lives of Fishermen). Pechstein presents the fishermen in a stylised manner. The jagged angular lines and areas of flat bold colouring are characteristic of the Brücke group, to which the artist belonged from 1906-12. In composing this scene, Pechstein has drawn upon his long-standing interests in folk life, tribal art, and unmodulated colour to convey an Expressionist vision of rural harmony.
