Title: Brücke
Date: o. J.
Dimensions: 49,30 cm x 59,20 cm
Genre: Art design
Year of acquisition: 1914
Whereabouts: Museum Ludwig, Köln
Medium: Aquarell
Museum director at time of acquisition: Alfred Hagelstange
Alfred Flechtheim and Heinrich Nauen
Heinrich Nauen is one of the most important representatives of ‘Rheinischer Expressionismus’. Inspired by Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse, Nauen – who studied at the art academies in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart – developed a painterly style based on the Fauves and the Expressionists. For Nauen, the overriding principle governing his work was colour, with form being subordinate to it. In 1911 Nauen moved to the Lower Rhine region after spending some time in Paris and Berlin. He was in contact with other artists such as Heinrich Campendonk and the Blauer Reiter group of artists, as well as collectors and gallery owners. He was represented at the Sonderbund exhibition in 1912 in Cologne. In 1921 he was appointed professor at the Düsseldorf art academy but was forced to resign in 1937. That same year his work was defamed in the National Socialists’ ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition. More than 100 works by Nauen had previously been confiscated from museums in Germany.
Alfred Flechtheim and Heinrich Nauen worked together ever since the opening exhibition in December 1913 in Düsseldorf. Flechtheim also honoured the artist with a solo exhibition in January and February that following year – one of the first exhibitions held in the rooms of the newly founded gallery and the first for Nauen himself. In addition to paintings, drawings and watercolours, his six-part painting cycle for Drove Castle, commissioned by the art historian Edwin Suermondt and one of Nauen’s most important works, was also shown. The artist who was under contract to Flechtheim from this time onwards, took part in seventeen group exhibitions in the galleries in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt up until 1933 and is, as such, one of the artists whose works were most frequently exhibited by Flechtheim.
Description
Der Künstler beschreibt, dass ihn die Anmut und die Heiterkeit des Ortes Visè faszinierten. Hier gibt Nauen einen kleinen Ausschnitt des am Wasser gelegenen holländischen Ortes. In flächig-ornamentaler Aufteilung des Bildfeldes zeigt sich rechts eine Gartenmauer sowie Büsche und Bäume und in der linken vorderen Bildfläche ein leeren Weg, der die Komposition diagonal teilt. An der Horizontlinie liegt die Brücke auf massiven im Wasser ruhenden Pfeilern. Die breite richtungsbetonende Pinselführung und die Lebendigkeit der Linie sorgen für eine ausgewogene Gliederung der Flächen, die eine stimmige Gesamtkomposition erwirken.
Bibliography
Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, "Erste Kollektivausstellung. Heinrich Nauen", Ausst.-Kat., Düsseldorf 1914, Nr. 27.
Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin 1914, Nr. 21.
Alfred M. Fischer und Agnes von der Borch: In der Zeichnung liegt die Wahrheit der Kunst. 100 Arbeiten auf Papier aus der Graphischen Sammlung des Museums Ludwig Köln mit Bestandsverzeichnis, Köln 1986, S. A36.
Klara Drenker-Nagels und Volker Adolphs: Heinrich Nauen 1880-1940. Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Bonn 1996, S. 289, Nr. 691.
Nauen, Heinrich: Brücke,
in: Kulturelles Erbe Köln