This task of this research point was to look at watercolour paintings from different periods and in different styles, to identify different techniques and think about their effect in the picture. It also advises to make a few sketches and notes to record observations, and how I would be able to incorporate the findings into my own practice.

Approaching the task

I felt quite overwhelmed by the task, because I’m new to watercolour and would not really know where to begin. So I first thought about strategies how I might approach the task.

My first idea was to look through the artists included in part 1 of the course materials. I could note their names and research them in the internet, by collecting some biographical information and try to get an overview and impression of their work. Another idea was to look through the book “Watercolour” from the reading list for this course, which I have bought but not yet begun to read. I also thought about trying to find out whether there are exhibitions in Berlin of watercolour artists. Or maybe a museum with important watercolour paintings. I also remembered that there is a small museum in Berlin regularly presenting works of Emil Nolde.

I started by first making a list of artists mentioned in the course material, and also noted a bit of context information. Then I decided that it would be a good idea to first have a look at what could be seen as original work in Berlin. From two German image catalogs I found www.bildindex.de quite helpful because it permitted to search for technique (watercolour) and location (Berlin). I then went through the list searching for interesting watercolours and noted down information about artist and location. I found quite a few located in the National Gallery and the Kupferstichkabinett.

I did not particularly restrict the search and verified that the index is international, but somehow the result list of my search seemed to include only German artists (plus some Swiss and Austrian, I think). Artists which interested me were: Curt Querner, Otto Dix, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, George Grosz, Johannes Itten, and Lovis Corinth.

The tricky part came when I wanted to actually see the original works. For some, no information on location was given. Others were located in private collection, thus inaccessible. Most of them were in a Museum, but spread over many different locations and would be difficult to find. The National Gallery consists of 9 Museums, and the catalog provided no information in which of these the images were. The Kupferstichkabinett is open only Monday to Friday during working hours, so I would need to take a day off work for a visit. So I resigned to the feasible option: Looking at Emil Nolde’s works and visiting the current exhibition at the Nolde Foundation.

Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde (1867 – 1956) was a German painter and printmaker, and has been a member of the expressionist group “Die Brücke”. I was lucky because the Emil Nolde Foundation had organized an exhibition which was on its next to last day, titled “From fisherman’s house to Mies van der Rohe”. The exhibition was centered around the architectural plans for a private home of Emil Nolde, planned by architect Mies van der Rohe between 1929 and 1933. Due to biographical events in Emil Nolde’s life, the building has never been realized. The exposition presented some works of the artists and how they related to the places where he lived. For example, there were watercolours depicting his house in Seebüll at the North Sea, close to the Danish Frontier, or paintings he made in the 1920s and 30s when he lived in Berlin.

Many of Emil Nolde’s watercolours and prints have been destroyed during World War II. The exhibition presented a hand-written note mentioning around 2200 watercolours being burnt when his Berlin flat was bombed. The exhibition also presented architectural models of the planned Mies van der Rohe house. Funnily enough, the house was very spacious, but the room called ‘Arbeitszimmer’ (study) didn’t have a window. The exhibition also mentioned ‘respectful discussions’ between Nolde and architect Mies van der Rohe, and I just wondered whether the painter objected against the plans for his study.

The watercolours shown in the exhibitions were very nice, but apparently not impressive as those for which Nolde became renown. There was a museum shop associated which presented art books on Nolde, some focusing on his watercolours and one large and heavy book, seemingly presenting all the major works including oil paintings, watercolours and prints. I was highly impressed by Nolde’s watercolours of flowers. They are very intense and colourful, and very expressive.

In the watercolours presented at the exhibition, Nolde seemed to be using mostly a wet-in-wet technique, which created beautiful colour blendings. Also, he seemed to be working on damp paper. I concluded this from looking closely at a watercolour reproduction of red moon flowers in one of the books. The contours of these flowers were not clear-cut, but a bit fuzzy, and this gave the leaves a very naturalistic touch.

One of the rooms of the exhibition presented landscape watercolours, depicting a renovated fisherman’s house at the countryside where he lived with his wife Ada for several years. Very characteristic for these paintings was the low horizon line, with the house lying quite flat and small, and an impressive sky with colourful cloud formations above the house, which took around 4/5 of the entire sheet. Here’s one which wasn’t included in the exhibition, but which resembles those that I saw.

Making sketches and taking notes

I went to the exhibition with the intention of maybe making some sketches, and took a light A4 sketchbook, pencils and watersoluble colour crayons with me. But I was a bit under time pressure because I had parked my car outside the museum and since the parking fees are quite high in the area, I paid only for one hour speculating that I might stay for half an hour more without a controller passing by and fining me. Nevertheless this created a feeling of pressure and I wasn’t calm enough to sit in front of a painting for a sketch. Maybe this reluctance was also because this is quite new for me. But I did make two drawings in the sketchbook: One of a wooden chair taken from one of Nolde’s homes, and the other of the architectural model of the planned house.

The wooden chair impressed me by the clarity of its design, and it was characteristic for the style of furniture which could be seen on photographs of Nolde’s homes. I thought it was typical for the upcoming Bauhaus movement and I also like the contrast between Nolde’s colourful and lively paintings and the strength and simplicity of the furniture design. Unfortunately the exhibition was on its last day, but I count on more occasions in the future to see Nolde’s works as originals. The Nolde foundation regularly organizes exhibitions, so there’s a high chance.

I also found a pointer to an important exhibition of Nolde’s works in the Oslo National Gallery from 12 October 2012 to 20 January 2013, which I would definitely like to visit.

Some more research on Nolde.

I took a look at Bridgeman education library to see whether they had a more comprehensive overview of Nolde’s works than what I had found so far. Indeed, they present around 250 works, and I selected some to further illustrate the observations I had made in the Nolde exhibition.

For example, here are two more watercolours to illustrate the low horizon line and the impressive colours of the sky in Nolde’s landscapes: Marshland Farmhouse (left) and Friesland farm with clouded sky (right).

The cyclamen may have been the flower watercolour painting where I detected the irregular shapes of the contours. The branch of blossom is another example of the masterly blending of colours in a wet-in-wet technique.

With respect to this research point, I’d take Nolde as a modern artist, and would like to look at artists from earlier times, too. I think I will select some of those mentioned in the course materials and search for high quality images on the web. This seems to offer access to a broader variety of works than focusing on what I can see as originals in Berlin within the next few days.

Classical/Traditional approaches: John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842)

I will have a look at the works of John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842). Cotman lived roughly 100 years earlier than Emil Nolde (1867 – 1956)

Browsing through the Bridgeman library, my attention was captured by the watercolour painting of New Bride, Durham, c. 1805/06. I think I was attracted by the portrait format which I tend to find interesting (and not always the best choice) for landscapes, and also by the colours and good contrasts.

In the course materials, John Sell Cotman’s watercolours were presented in the context of resist techniques, and I wonder whether this painting has been developed using such a technique. I can imagine how the different tones and shapes of the landscape’s elements were developed by applying more and more layers of a resist, then laying washes on top. I think this is due to the very regular colouring, where no brush strokes can be seen. Also, there is not the typical blending of watercolour pigment when applied with a brush to create a form directly, as for example in Emil Nolde’s flower drawings.

The effect of John Sell Cotman’s technique seems to be a more static and calm overall impression – compared to the expressivity of Nolde’s flower watercolours. Interestingly, the tree on top right seems to have been developed without a resist, because the white clouds of the sky shine through that transparent layer.

Another watercolour that I found interesting is titled ‘Brecknock’ (c. 1801), and for the technique ‘watercolour with gum arabic’ is indicated. I experimented with gum arabic in this project but not very successfully, so I’m quite impressed by this painting. During my experiments, I wasn’t able to detect what exactly gum arabic could be used for, and looking at this painting, I still don’t see where and how it was applied. But the overall impression is different from a ‘simple’ watercolour.

Watercolour Painting in Britain, 1750 – 1850

Searching Google for ‘John Sell Cotman gum arabicum’ wasn’t successful with respect to my question, but returned an interesting thematic essay published on the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art under the title ‘Watercolour Painting in Britain, 1750 – 1850.’

It includes a slideshow which presents some watercolour paintings from important painters, and the examples selected tend to be watercolour over graphite. I chose one by John Robert Cozens (1752 – 1798), ‘View of the Villa Lante on the Janiculum (Gianicolo) in Rome, dated 1782-82. The essay explains that the painting was based on a graphite drawing over which washes of watercolour were laid. Brush strokes were eliminated by blotting.

This seems to correspond well to the aim of depicting the trees further away, where visible brush strokes might have disturbed the intended effect.

I like this very traditional technique of colorizing a graphite drawing and would like to experiment with it. I’m currently doing my first landscape drawings in the context of the drawing 1 course, and find it quite difficult to create enough contrast between adjacent trees using only pencil grey. Adding tones of green to these drawings might well improve the readability of these drawings.

At the same time, I realize that this is an approach quite different from what I saw in Emil Nolde’s works, who worked very spontaneous, rather than planning and meticulously constructing details before applying colour. Similar to the work of John Sell Cotman, the overall impression of this watercolour is quiet and static, where Nolde’s works come across lively and vibrant.

Looking at a contemporary artist: Anna Teasdale

Still in the Bridgeman education library, I looked up Anna Teasdale and selected the ‘Road to Torlisk’ (2008) for a closer view.

For me this is a very disturbing painting. I had made my selection from a thumbnail sized image result list because I liked the colours. But when looking at the large image, I was quite perplexed how Teasdale painted a forest in watercolour. She gave clearly defined contours to individual trees, arranging them side by side, all with basically the same shape, and colourized in different blue-green tones. These trees look very artificial, like an army of soldiers waiting for the marching order. It’s a very strange painting. It is very recent, only four years old, and I wonder whether Anna Teasdale has made an artistic development towards this style, compared to the painting presented in the course materials.

And indeed, looking at her earlier work, the style seems to have been much more natural and fluid, for example ‘Near Dervaig’ (2000) or still earlier, ‘Wiltshire pines’ (1989).

By contrast, her recent work seems to be influenced by her painting in acrylic and oil, which is very realistic, massive and solid. Her later watercolour style seems to eliminate the fluidity and chance effects out of the medium, and there’s intriguing resemblance between her watercolour and acrylic/oil paintings. See for example ‘Calgary Woods. Isle of Mull’ (undated), oil on canvas. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to retrieve the creation date of this painting to verify my idea about her development towards more static depiction of the world.

Conclusion

This was a first attempt to get to know some more of the broad spectrum of watercolour styles and techniques. There’s so much more to discover!

References

Bildindex, German art and architecture image catalog
http://www.bildindex.de

— Emil Nolde

Nolde Foundation Berlin, exhibition “From a fisherman’s house to Mies van der Rohe” (Von der Fischerkate zu Mies van der Rohe)
http://www.nolde-stiftung.de/de/32/ausstellung-winter-201112.html

Brücke Museum, Berlin
http://www.bruecke-museum.de/

National Gallery Oslo (Norway) with upcoming Emil Nolde exhibition ‘In search of the authentic’ from 13 October 2012 to 20 January 2013
http://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/

Emil Nolde c. 1930 Sonnenblumen, watercolour
http://www.boisseree.com/fr/exhibitions/2009.html

Emil Nolde c. 1935 Sonnenblumen und Rittersporn, watercolour
http://www.kettererkunst.de/kunst/kd/details.php?obnr=112001890&anummer=400

Emil Nolde c. 1940-45 Blumen-Aquarell mit roten Tulpen
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/emil-nolde-blumen-aquarell-mit-roten-tulpen-5583082-details.aspx

Emil Nolde 1930 Marschlandschaft, Watercolor and India ink drawing
http://www.kettererkunst.com/details-e.php?obnr=101001748&anummer=368

Marshland farmhouse (undated)
http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=8&balid=197984

Friesland farm with clouded sky (undated)
http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=168&balid=197994

Cyclamen (undated)
http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=23&balid=209720

Branch of blossom (undated)
http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=75&balid=209721

— John Sell Cotman

New Bride, Durham, c. 1805/06
http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=11&balid=155886

Brecknock (c. 1801)
http://www.bridgemaneducation.com/ImageView.aspx?result=53&balid=159498

— Watercolour Painting in Britain, 1750 – 1850