Hamburg Harbor with a Tugboat 1910

Emil Nolde made this drawing of Hamburg Harbor with a Tugboat using what looks like India ink on paper. The urgency of the marks just leaps out, doesn’t it? It's so clear that he’s right there, in the moment, making swift decisions. The real grit is in the materiality. See how the black ink pools in places, and elsewhere it's pulled thin, almost transparent, letting the paper breathe through? And those lines scratched across the water; they’re not just waves, they’re a record of Nolde's hand, moving, feeling. It’s like a dance. Notice how the dark mass of the tugboat seems to swallow the light around it, and the quick, assertive strokes that form the sky. I’m reminded of Guston’s late work, that same fearlessness, that willingness to embrace the messy, the raw. Nolde's drawing isn't about perfection; it’s about the energy of seeing and responding.