Museum Folkwang
Heilige Maria von Ägypten
  • Emil Nolde

  • Heilige Maria von Ägypten, 1912

  • Saint Mary of Egypt
  • Oil on canvas
  • 87 x 100,5 cm
  • Acquired in 1924 for the Museum Folkwang, Essen, confiscated in 1937 and re-acquired in 1950 with the support of the Folkwang-Museumsverein
  • Inv. G 217
  • © Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
  • CommentaryIn the medieval text collection ›Legenda Aurea‹ Jacobus de Voragine, Dominican monk and Archbishop of Genoa, quite openly recounts how Maria Aegyptiaca, later to become a saint, once travelled to Jerusalem. When the boatsman demanded to be paid, she is said to have replied: »I can’t give it to you; but take my body and take your pay with it. So they took me with them and my body paid for my crossing.« According to legend, the Egyptian Maria lived a dissipated life for 17 years before she converted during a pilgrimage to the festival of the finding of the true cross in Jerusalem and then lived for 47 years as a hermit in the desert. Depicted is the moment her body was found by St. Zosimus, with a lion to his side which is said to have helped prepare a grave. Nolde’s paintings with religious themes, characterized by an extremely direct subjectivity, were controversial during his lifetime. Nolde himself wrote in 1909 on this phenomenon: »I followed an irresistible desire to depict deep spiritualism, religion and ardency though without much willingness, knowledge or consideration«.
  • Provenance1912 - 1916, Emil Nolde
    1916 frühestens - 1925, Dr. Paul Erich Küppers, Hannover
    1925 - 06.07.1937, Museum Folkwang, Essen
    06.07.1937 - 06.07.1937, für die Ausstellung "Entartete Kunst" in München, Beschlagnahmung durch das Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, Berlin
    1938 - 1939?, Depot Schloss Schönhausen
    1939 - 1945, Kauf vom Deutschen Reich, Bernhard A. Böhmer, Güstrow
    05.1945 - 1949, Nachlass Böhmer, Wilma Zelck, Rostock (Schwägerin von B. A. Böhmer)
    1949 - 1949, Kauf bei Zelck, Kunsthandel Edgar Horstmann, Hamburg
    1950 - heute, Kauf bei Horstmann, Hamburg, Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • Obj_Id: 3,432
  • Obj_Internet_S: Highlight
  • Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art
  • Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw): 187
  • Obj_Creditline_S: Museum Folkwang, Essen, Gemäldesammlung
  • Obj_Title1_S: Heilige Maria von Ägypten
  • Obj_Title2_S: Saint Mary of Egypt
  • Obj_PartDescription_S (Titelerg):
  • Obj_SpareMField01_M (Alle Titel): Heilige Maria von Ägypten Saint Mary of Egypt Heilige Maria von Ägypten
  • Obj_Dating_S: 1912
  • Jahr von: 1,912
  • Jahr bis: 1,912
  • Obj_IdentNr_S: G 217
  • Obj_IdentNrSort_S: G 0217
  • Obj_Classification_S (Objtyp): Painting
  • Obj_Crate_S: 87 x 100,5 cm
  • Obj_Material_S: Oil on canvas
  • Obj_Technique_S:
  • Obj_SpareSField01_S (Mat./Tech.): Oil on canvas
  • Obj_AccNote_S (Erwerb): Acquired in 1924 for the Museum Folkwang, Essen, confiscated in 1937 and re-acquired in 1950 with the support of the Folkwang-Museumsverein
  • Obj_PermanentLocation_S (Standort):
  • Obj_Condition1_S (Druckerei):
  • Obj_Condition2_S (Auflage):
  • Obj_Subtype_S (Genre):
  • Obj_Rights_S: © Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Commentary
Artists
Provenance

In the medieval text collection ›Legenda Aurea‹ Jacobus de Voragine, Dominican monk and Archbishop of Genoa, quite openly recounts how Maria Aegyptiaca, later to become a saint, once travelled to Jerusalem. When the boatsman demanded to be paid, she is said to have replied: »I can’t give it to you; but take my body and take your pay with it. So they took me with them and my body paid for my crossing.« According to legend, the Egyptian Maria lived a dissipated life for 17 years before she converted during a pilgrimage to the festival of the finding of the true cross in Jerusalem and then lived for 47 years as a hermit in the desert. Depicted is the moment her body was found by St. Zosimus, with a lion to his side which is said to have helped prepare a grave. Nolde’s paintings with religious themes, characterized by an extremely direct subjectivity, were controversial during his lifetime. Nolde himself wrote in 1909 on this phenomenon: »I followed an irresistible desire to depict deep spiritualism, religion and ardency though without much willingness, knowledge or consideration«.