Emil Nolde
Biography1867 - 1956
About the artist
Emil Nolde, original name Emil Hansen (born Aug. 7, 1867, Nolde, near Bocholt, Ger.—died April 15, 1956, Seebüll, near Niebüll, W.Ger.), was a German Expressionist painter, printmaker, and watercolorist. Born of a peasant family, the youthful Nolde made his living as a wood-carver.
He studied art formally only when some of his early works were reproduced and sold as postcards. In 1906 he joined Die Brücke, an association of Dresden-based Expressionist artists who admired his “storm of colour.” However, Nolde dissociated himself from that tightly knit group after a year and a half.
During 1913 and 1914 Nolde was a member of an ethnological expedition that reached the East Indies. There he was impressed with the power of unsophisticated belief, as is evident in his lithograph Dancer (1913). After returning to Europe, Nolde led a reclusive life on the Baltic coast of Germany. . He was a prolific graphic artist especially noted for the stark black-and-white effect that he employed in crudely incised woodcuts. Nolde was an early advocate of Germany’s National Socialist Party, but, when the Nazis came to power, they declared his work “decadent” and forbade him to paint.
After World War II he resumed painting but often merely reworked older themes. His last self-portrait (1947) retains his vigorous brushwork but reveals the disillusioned withdrawal of the artist in his 80th year.
He studied art formally only when some of his early works were reproduced and sold as postcards. In 1906 he joined Die Brücke, an association of Dresden-based Expressionist artists who admired his “storm of colour.” However, Nolde dissociated himself from that tightly knit group after a year and a half.
During 1913 and 1914 Nolde was a member of an ethnological expedition that reached the East Indies. There he was impressed with the power of unsophisticated belief, as is evident in his lithograph Dancer (1913). After returning to Europe, Nolde led a reclusive life on the Baltic coast of Germany. . He was a prolific graphic artist especially noted for the stark black-and-white effect that he employed in crudely incised woodcuts. Nolde was an early advocate of Germany’s National Socialist Party, but, when the Nazis came to power, they declared his work “decadent” and forbade him to paint.
After World War II he resumed painting but often merely reworked older themes. His last self-portrait (1947) retains his vigorous brushwork but reveals the disillusioned withdrawal of the artist in his 80th year.
