Schmidt-Rottluff and Heckel spend their summer time in Dangast, a small spa near the North Sea. The region had preserved peat bogs that provide the young artists with the idea of what Mother Earth was in the prehistoric times of the appearance of life.
Artistic movements evolve quickly. Fauvism develops in parallel with the expressionism of Die Brücke which will gives way to the symbolic colors of the group Der Blaue Reiter with which Schmidt-Rottluff exhibits in 1912.
The oil on canvas 77 x 84 cm titled Watt bei Ebbe (peat bogs at low tide) painted by Schmidt-Rottluff in 1912 is at the confluence of these trends. The saturated colors are dominated by the red and orange of sky and water. The landscape is animated by a few sails and their reflections. The simplicity of the drawing evokes the period of Gauguin in Brittany.
This painting was sold for € 2.7M including premium by Villa Grisebach on November 28, 2013. It is estimated £ 2M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 12.
The Die Brücke movement is already out of date. It will be dissolved in 1913. Schmidt-Rottluff's art will become rare as a result of its persecution by the Nazis.
unsold