Emil Nolde artwork • watercolour • drawing • for sale Veiltails (Aquarium)

Movements in the water, fish that turn and turn in schools in wisps of color, silver-lit scales and wondrous exotics in decorative colors and lines. In the silence and seclusion of the aquarium, the German expressionist Emil Nolde saw an enchanting spectacle of fish, fascinated as he was by the mysterious world of exotic fish. From 1911 he spent the winter months in Berlin, in an apartment close to the zoo. His frequent visits to the Zoo and Aquarium resulted in a number of particularly beautiful watercolors in 1923 and 1924, including this composition of three Veil Tails. In order to achieve the effect of the diffuse, moving water, he worked with highly diluted watercolors on Japanese paper, whereby subject and material have become one.