Mühle am Wasser is one of Nolde's largest and most experimental prints. It belongs to a small, but highly significant group of colour lithographs, which the artist printed in a variety of colour combinations, all of which are rare and many unique. The subject of the windmill is a highly traditional landscape motif, and a very familiar one in the flatlands of Northern Germany and Denmark where Nolde came from. His treatment of the mill and the high sky over the plain however is entirely modern and his own, in its cursory, bold outlines and the doubling of the mill and the cloud in the reflection in the water. By printing the lithograph in drastically different tonalities and colour combinations, Nolde achieved completely different effects, transforming the scene to represent different times of the day and weather conditions, rendering the landscape as a night-piece (see lot 29), or depicting it during sunset or on a bright, slightly misty afternoon (see lot 30).
It is fascinating to see three very different iterations of the same print side by side, as this sale offers the rare opportunity to do.