Self Portrait

ca. 1917; Emil Nolde
( Danish-German, 1867-1956 , born near Tønder in Denmark );
Watercolor, reed pen, and black ink; 21.5 x 17.8 cm

Nolde developed a deceptively facile method of working in watercolor. He selected an absorbent Japanese paper which he moistened with water before applying color. The colors were allowed to spread across the damp paper and to merge with one another, forming new colors and blurred edges. Nolde reinforced the image with added color (often on both sides of the sheet) or lightened it with the addition of water. After the color dried, he added definition to the image with a brush using a dark color or with a reed pen and ink. The additions disappeared in the watercolors created after 1935.