Description

Emil Nolde’s melancholy image, devoid of human presence, conveys the smoggy air of Hamburg’s industrial harbor. The bold tonal contrasts and strong graphic patterns are coupled with arbitrarily etched dots in the sky—a density of atmosphere created when areas of the acid-resistant ground randomly gave way to etch the plate underneath. After a successful exhibition in 1910 in which he sold many works, Nolde rented cheap sailors’ lodgings on the waterfront of the Hamburg docks and worked furiously for three weeks, producing 19 etchings, 4 woodcuts, and many drawings.