Lofoten Landscape with Lake and Rowing Boat, 1938

About the Work

In the summers of 1937 and 1938, Ernst Wilhelm Nay travelled to Norway. Following the example of Rolf Nesch (Städel Museum, Inv. No. SG 3179), he visited the Lofoten Islands. The overwhelming scenery with its high mountain peaks, clear waters and stormy seas but also its inhabitants, inspired Nay to embark on a new workgroup, the so-called "Lofoten Pictures". In this example he has portrayed the landscape in vivid watercolours. The drawing thus differs from the earlier "Fishermen and Sailboats on the Beach" (Städel Museum, Inv. No. 16105), which the artist had composed more reductively in terms of both colour and form.

About the Acquisition

From 1900 onwards, the Frankfurt chemist and industrialist Carl Hagemann (1867‒1940) assembled one of the most important private collections of modern art. It included numerous paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints, especially by members of the artist group “Die Brücke”. After Carl Hagemann died in an accident during the Second World War, the then Städel director Ernst Holzinger arranged for Hagemann’s heirs to evacuate his collection with the museum’s collection. In gratitude, the family donated almost all of the works on paper to the Städel Museum in 1948. Further donations and permanent loans as well as purchases of paintings and watercolours from the Hagemann estate helped to compensate for the losses the museum had suffered in 1937 as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” campaign. Today, the Hagemann Collection forms the core of the Städel museum’s Expressionist collection.