Nolde, Emil

Emil Nolde was a German-Danish painter and printmaker, one of the first Expressionists, and a member of Die Brücke. Today, Nolde is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors used in his paintings and prints of flowers, landscapes, and folklore.

The artist was born Emil Hansen on August 7, 1867, into a farming family in Nolde, Germany. He initially made his living as a wood-carver, then attended the School of Applied Arts in Karlsruhe. He became a drawing instructor at the school of the Museum of Industrial and Applied Arts in St. Gallen, Switzerland, from 1892 to 1898 before leaving to pursue his own art.

In 1898, Nolde was rejected by the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. He spent the next three years taking private painting classes, visiting Paris, and becoming familiar with the contemporary Impressionist scene. In 1902, he married Danish actress Ada Vilstrup, and the couple moved to Berlin where he would meet collector Gustav Schiefler and artist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, both of whom would advocate his work later in life. That same year he changed his name to reflect his birthplace.

In 1906, Nolde was invited to join the revolutionary Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge), an association of Dresden-based Expressionist artists. This association lasted only until the end of the following year. He exhibited with Kandinsky’s Munich-based group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in 1912.

Later in his life Nolde was an early advocate of Germany’s National Socialist Party. However, when Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as “degenerate art”, the Nazi regime officially condemned Nolde’s work. His works were removed from museums and many were included in the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937. He was forbidden to paint but during this period he created hundreds of watercolors, which he kept in hiding.

The artist died on April 15, 1956, in Seebüll, Germany at the age of 88. His works are presently held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Albertina in Vienna.