ALKERSUM/FÖHR.- A special group of works from the oeuvre of the major Schleswig-Holstein-based painter Hans Peter Feddersen was selected for this exhibition: the landscapes he created on the Danish and North Frisian west coast. These range from plein-air oil studies created in the early 1870s on the islands of Sylt and Fanø and large-scale, art-nouveau-inspired canvases to expressive late works.

Trained at the art academies in Düsseldorf and Weimar, Feddersen early on devoted himself to the natural scenery of his native surroundings, which at the time was still felt to be an unworthy subject for painting; moreover, he eschewed attractive, picturesque scenery. In spite of their proximity, Feddersen and Emil Nolde pursued different artistic objectives. Feddersen was particularly drawn to things that were hard to depict: the dramatically high sky, the interaction of air and light, of wind and clouds. Over seven decades he engaged in this struggle with unflagging intensity.

The exhibition is comprised of more than 100 exhibits, including numerous works from private collections that have not or only rarely been shown before.

Hans Peter Feddersen
Hans Peter Feddersen was born in Westerschnatebüll in North Frisia in 1848 and he died in the Kleiseer polder near Niebüll in 1941 when he was 93 years old. He is known as the most important landscape painter of Schleswig-Holstein. He left 1500 paintings and studies and one has to add many drawings to his life’s work as an artist.

Feddersen held the nature of North Frisia in high regard. Until then artists were not interested in this landscape because they thought it to be boring. Feddersen wanted to show that this was not true. Again and again you find high skies and you will recognize Feddersen’s ability to paint air, light, clouds and weather. In his painting he always wanted to show little but in a great way.

Feddersen always kept in touch with his home, with North Frisia, but nevertheless he went out to study in Düsseldorf and in Weimar. In 1879 he married Margarthe Hansen who came from the Kleiseer polder. From 1880 to 1884 they lived in Düsseldorf and they had 4 children. During that time Feddersen was very successful as an artist and sold many works but in his personal life he was very unhappy. In Düsseldorf three of his four children died and for two years Feddersen was not able to paint. So in 1885 the family decided to return to North Frisia and from then on they lived in the Kleiseer polder near Niebüll. Hans Peter Feddersen often painted his house, his studio and the landscape surrounding him. The Kleiseer polder is a low marshland with very few farms. There the couple had four more children. Margarethe Hansen died in 1908 and one year later Feddersen married Sophie Lorenzen (1868-1967).

Hans Peter Feddersen was the first artist who really was interested in the island of Sylt. In 1869 he went there for the first time and he returned in 1870 and 1872. Artists thought the nature there to be boring and not worth to be shown in a painting. But Feddersen was very interested in the impressive sand dunes and he chose special formats of frames to match the wide horizon. Feddersen’s paintings of Sylt were exhibited in 1906 in the “Jahrhundertausstellung” in the Berliner Nationalgalerie. The museum bought the work “Lister Dünen/Dunes in List”. It shows the great recognition of the artist.

Feddersen often painted summer in North Frisia. If you look at these paintings one might claim that it does not really look like a hot summer’s day. The painter was interested in changes of weather, in light and in clouds. Weather in Northern Frisia changes fast and clouds move quickly. A totally blue sky for Feddersen was kind of boring from the artist’s point of view. In his pictures the painter wants to show things which are difficult to show.

But Hans Peter Feddersen was interested in winter in North Frisia, too, while other artists again thought the winter landscape there to be boring and inhospitable. The painter proved that this was not completely true.

The landscape in the polders was often flooded and people used it to go ice-skating. The lines on the ice you recognize in works like “Winterabend bei Deezbüll (winter evening near Deezbüll)” and “Winter in Nordfriesland/Winter in North Frisia” (both painted in 1904) are curved traces of ice-skaters. During that time, around 1900, art nouveau was at its peak. Hans Peter Feddersen knew the art nouveau artist which were famous for their curved lines and forms of nature in their works. He used these graphic elements in detail without being a part of this movement.

In „Schneegestöber/Snowstorm” (1928) you could almost think Hans Peter Feddersen belonged to the French avant-garde of the pointillism. It seems like dabbed color but in fact every dot stands for a real snow flake so that the picture remains highly realistic. By placing dots in different thickness Feddersen creates space and you almost get the feeling of standing in the middle of a snowstorm.

It is not clear when Feddersen’s late work begins. It is not even clear how it is defined. If you want to mention a change in style it could be that the sky became more and more important. Often it covers the bigger part of the paintings. Although Feddersen’s brushstroke in his studies became very free he can’t be called an expressionist. Nature always remained the basis and starting point for his art.

But it is true that one might notice how expressionistic his studies seem at first sight. „Sonnenuntergang am Meer/Sundown at the Sea” was painted in 1906, when expressionism just began. There are violet clouds and a swarm of birds which was painted so quickly you could think of them as dirt on the surface of the painting. Works like this seem to foresee expressionism. One could say he took the challenge with Emil Nolde in his studies although their artistic aims were very different and they did not get along very well. Emil Nolde’s approach was based on an arts-and-crafts-apprenticeship while Feddersen’s was more academic. Furthermore they seemed to be very different in character. One has to state that both artists shared little apart from their place of residence in North Frisia.

Hans Peter Feddersen’s artistic view on nature remained fresh until he was an old man. Over the course of 7 decades he created works of constant quality.

The artist was quite wealthy so he did not have to sell his works, and many of them are kept in the family and never appeared on the art market or in museums. This might be one reason that the painter’s name is rather unknown outside Schleswig-Holstein. A fact that is surely to be changed.