About the Artwork
Emil Nolde painted flowers as metaphors for basic human emotions and the cycle of life. At Seebüll, where he lived from 1927, he cultivated a garden that became a source of inspiration. An admirer of Vincent van Gogh, Nolde adopted the motif of sunflowers in a series of works. Here, he sets vibrantly orange and yellow petals against a dark blue sky. The ripe blooms bend heavily toward the earth to start the life cycle anew.
Germany’s totalitarian National Socialist (Nazi) government censored the use of emotive color and vigorous brushwork in modern art, but there were factions in the Nazi party supportive of Nolde’s work. This painting was shown to Adolf Hitler in 1933 at a private Munich home in an unusual plan devised to promote Nolde. Ultimately, the plan failed, and even though Nolde was a member of the Nazi party, Sunflowers was confiscated from the Berlin National Gallery in 1937 and displayed in a propaganda exhibition that condemned modern art as “degenerate” and morally corrupt.
Sunflowers
1932
Emil Nolde
1867-1956
German
----------
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 29 × 35 inches (73.7 × 88.9 cm) Framed: 35 1/2 × 41 3/4 × 3 inches (90.2 × 106 × 7.6 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
Gift of Robert H. Tannahill
54.460
Copyright Not Evaluated
Markings
Signed, lower center: Emil Nolde
Inscribed, on verso across top of stretcher: Emil Nolde: Reife Sonnenblumen
Provenance
1935-July 7, 1937, Nationalgalerie (Kronprinzenpalais), Berlin (Berlin, Germany);July 7, 1937, confiscated by the German Reich (Deutsches Reich)/The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda), Berlin, Germany as “degenerate art [“Entartete Kunst,” no. 16130];
May 24, 1939, consigned to (Buch- und Kunsthandlung Karl Buchholz, Berlin, Germany);
by 1939, transferred to (Curt Valentin, Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York, USA);
1939-1940, purchased by Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA);
1940-1954, on long term loan from Robert H. Tannahill (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA) to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
1954-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
Please note: This section is empty
The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Bulletin of the DIA 35, 1 (1955-1956): pp. 17-18 (ill.). [incorrectly dated as 1923]
Haftmann, W. Emil Nolde. Cologne, 1959, p. 111.
Parini, L. "Emil Nolde at New York." Atre Figurativa 11, 63 (1963): p. 70 (ill.).
Emil Nolde. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 1963, p. 83, no. 53 (pl. 46).
Rosenblum, Robert. Modern Painting and the Northerm Romantic Tradition. New York, 1975, p. 136 (fig. 200).
Uhr, Horst. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1982, p. 180 (ill.).
Emil Nolde 1867-1956. Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 2008, p. 279, no. 126 (ill.).
Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.
Suggest FeedbackCatalogue Raisoneé
Please note: This section is empty
Credit Line for Reproduction
Emil Nolde, Sunflowers, 1932, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Robert H. Tannahill, 54.460.
More by Artist
Feedback
We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
