Emil Nolde:
Head of a Young Woman (Kopf eines jungen Mädchens), 1930
Watercolor on Japan paper
47 x 33.5 cm
Private collection (Auctioned at Christie’s London in February 2019 for £500,000)

In the late summer of 1930, Emil Nolde stayed on the North Sea island of Sylt while his house in Seebüll was being repaired. During his time at a guesthouse in Kampen, he noticed a fellow guest. This watercolor portrait shows that woman: Margarete Turgel, a sculptor from Berlin who was on holiday with her husband. Nolde noticed her jet-black hair, heavy brows, and serious look, describing her colors as “black and yellow” in a letter to his wife.

Wet Paper and Bleeding Color

For readers interested in Nolde’s technique, this portrait shows how he worked with watercolor. He usually made the absorbent Japan paper wet before applying his brush. This caused the fluid colors to run into each other on the paper, making the edges of the face look blurry.

Instead of drawing neat lines, Nolde used pools of deep violet-blue shadow to shape her neck, arm, and the side of her face. This bleeding of color gives the portrait a heavy, moody feel, turning a quick holiday sketch into a close look at a specific face.

The Story of the Model and the Painter

While the title calls her a “young girl,” Margarete Turgel was an established artist in Berlin. She was known for making animal figures out of silver foil. Just three years after Nolde painted her, her life changed. When the Nazi regime took power in 1933, she and her husband had to leave Germany because she was Jewish. They spent the rest of their lives in hiding and exile in southern France.

This history brings forward the complicated reality of Nolde himself. While his model had to flee, Nolde actively supported the National Socialist party. He held strong antisemitic views and believed his raw, expressive style represented the true German spirit.

But the Nazi regime rejected his vision. They took his work out of museums, labeled him a “degenerate” artist, and banned him from painting in 1941. Even after he was silenced, Nolde continued to support the ideology that had turned against him.

For a long time after the war, Nolde was presented simply as a lonely victim of Nazi censorship. Today, a much clearer picture of his political choices is known. The strength of his watercolors stands right beside his wartime choices, making his place in art history complicated.