About the work
In the 1960s, Christian Modersohn painted several large-format water-colours in the early light of the breaking day. Structured on complementary green and red hues and executed with great assurance, this charming work depicts the open view onto the vast north German landscape.
Fashioned in the immediate vicinity of his house, the water-colour shows the still tree-flanked northern arm of the River Wümme, facing out to the east. With the horizon still veiled by the early morning mist, this serene river landscape is vaulted by the reflection of the red light of dawn. Today this stretch of countryside looks very different. The course of the river is now barely recognisable behind thick clusters of trees, making this water- colour a veritable chronicle of a landscape in change.
As ever more swathes of pasture land became abandoned amidst growing environmental awareness, the meadows of the Wümme around Fischerhude were transformed into wetlands, populated with trees along the banks of the river and declared a nature reserve.
Text authored and provided by Rainer Noeres, manager of the Otto Modersohn Museum in Fischerhude,
born 1948. Typesetter apprenticeship in Hamburg from 1965-1968. Study of fine arts at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg (HfbK) from 1968-1973. Co-founder and operating partner of the Produzentengalerie Hamburg from 1973-2009. Teaching appointment for painting at the HfbK in 1974.
Married to Antje Modersohn, the daughter of Christian Modersohn, since 1976, three children. Decisively involved in establishing the Otto Modersohn Museum and archive in Fischerhude since 1977. Responsible for the creation of the catalogue raisonné of Otto Modersohn since 1980. Planning and execution of many exhibitions and cooperation projects with museums and art associations in Germany and abroad. Author of foundational publications on the work of Otto Modersohn. Employed since 2010 as head of the museum, as well as as voluntary managing director of the Otto-Modersohn-Gesellschaft e.V. and the Otto Modersohn Foundation, which were founded in 1989. Member of the board of the Otto Modersohn Foundation and of the Otto-Modersohn-Museum-Tecklenburg e.V. in Tecklenburg/Westphalia, founded in 2015. (Visit website)
