(Not) Forgotten: “Dyke near Worpswede” by Otto Modersohn

Modersohn’s 1894 painting Dyke near Worpswede was exhibited at the Gdańsk exhibition of the Society of Fine Arts in 1899. The artist was one of the leading representatives of German Impressionism.

The work depicts a dyke near Worpswede in Lower Saxony, where, in 1889, the painter and a group of friends established an artists’ colony. The artistic community based there gained recognition as early as 1895, when, following an exhibition in Munich, Modersohn’s painting Storm over Teufelsmoor was acquired for the Neue Pinakothek.

In Gdańsk, however, there was still considerable scepticism towards the new art. One review of the Gdańsk exhibition reveals the author’s ambivalent attitude towards the painting. The detailed description also helps explain why, despite the controversy surrounding it, the work was purchased for the Gdańsk City Museum after the exhibition.

As the reviewer writes, an uninitiated viewer would instinctively want to reject the painting. Yet, after a closer and more open-minded examination, they would have to admit that, even if they disagreed with the artist, there was more to the work than mere showmanship and an attempt to appear original. The painting made a strong impression, provoked conflicting reactions, and possessed a certain atmosphere ‒ a weary melancholy.

In the reviewer’s view, the various stages in the development of art should be appreciated, which may explain the museum’s decision to purchase the work: the painting was regarded as a valuable manifestation of new tendencies in art. The review concludes with the assertion that the greatest threats to art are triviality and boredom ‒ and Modersohn’s art could certainly not be described as boring.

Today, the critic’s words can only be considered in light of a photograph, as the painting was lost during the Second World War and is now considered a wartime loss.

Funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the Research into Poland’s Wartime Losses programme.