Two Girls

In this watercolor study of two women's heads, Emil Nolde—who was briefly a member of The Bridge (Die Brücke) group of German Expressionists in 1906-07—communicates emotional urgency through bright and dramatic contrasts of color. Nolde enjoyed the immediacy of working with watercolor and he also embraced a primitive, semi-religious mysticism. Even in Two Girls, a subject with no overtly spiritual associations, Nolde draws one into a realm in which a mystical force seems present. By contrasting, for example, the warm orange against cool magentas, the artist transforms his women into glowing visions. Their wide, dark, animal-like eyes stare out into space, focusing on a reality inaccessible to the viewer.

In 1937, the Nazi's confiscated this piece from a museum collection in northern Germany. They designated it "degenerate" and not fit to be viewed by the public. By Nazi law, the museum was required to deaccession the work; during this period, other confiscated works by Nolde were destroyed by the Nazi's rather than sold abroad to raise foreign currency for the state.