Autumn Sea VII 

Emil Nolde captured this Autumn Sea in oil with strokes that convey nature's raw emotional power. Yellow, the colour of divine illumination, dominates the turbulent sky, a symbol resonating from ancient sun worship to medieval religious art where gold leaf signified the presence of God. The sea, rendered in feverish strokes of red and violet, evokes the primal waters of creation and destruction. This contrasts with the serene seascapes of earlier Dutch masters, such as Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, where the ocean was a backdrop to human endeavor. Here, the sea's violent beauty rises to the fore. Such tempestuousness echoes through art history—from Turner’s shipwrecks to the Romantic visions of Caspar David Friedrich. These artists channelled powerful forces from nature, as mirrors for the turmoil of the human soul. Each of these artists captures the sublime, the overwhelming sense of awe and terror, as our ancestors did when they gazed at forces beyond their control. Nolde thus taps into a deep, collective memory, a primal fear and reverence for the natural world that continues to shape our experience.