Emil Nolde (born August 7, 1867 – died April 13, 1956) was a famous German watercolorist of the XIX-XX centuries, a talented expressionist and an outstanding master of the religious genre. The work of Emil Nolde is dedicated to the description of colorful gardens, vivid sea views, gloomy landscapes of Berlin at night. The painter created rich and expressive paintings of mystical, fantastic and religious content, he liked to paint portraits and paint the sky.

Biography of Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde was born on August 7, 1867 in a large peasant family living on a small farm in the border region of Germany and Denmark. He became the fourth child, at birth he received the name Hans Emil Hansen, and from early childhood he was forced to work hard, helping his parents with the housework. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, young Hans left his home without regret and entered the Flensburg trade school, choosing the specialty of an artist and woodcarver.

Emil Nolde became interested in painting during his studies, but no one in the family supported this hobby. But the profession of a furniture maker completely satisfied his relatives, so Hans got a job at a furniture factory. And secretly attended drawing lessons. In 1894, Emil Hansen created the famous Alpine peaks in the form of living giants. Then he borrowed money, printed a series of postcards, which sold out in large numbers, and devoted himself entirely to painting. Until the very end of the 1890s, he was looking for himself – in art, in love, in life.

creative search

At the turn of the two centuries, the artist acquired a pseudonym and married Ada Vilstrup. In the same period, his style of drawing was finally formed. Many contemporaries, and then art critics who studied the work of Emil Nolde, called him an expressionist, but the painter himself did not agree with this definition. He believed that the term artificially limits his possibilities and significantly impoverishes his potential. The master called himself “a simple German artist.” And Emil Nolde wrote really bright expressive paintings, splashing out strong emotions and feelings on the canvas with a rich palette.

In search of new forms of painting, Emil Nolde joined the Bridge group, whose members abandoned the classical drawing in favor of an original interpretation of the surrounding reality. They believed that instead of academically correct paintings depicting a beautiful but deceptive and embellished reality, the artist should create truthful works using pure paint and natural lines.

Nolde shared these views, but separated from the group two years later. The gulf was too great between the young artists, who absorbed the new urban culture from the cradle, and the mature Emil, who came to painting from a deep village and remained a simple peasant all his life in spirit. After the “Bridge” there was the Berlin Secession, but the watercolorist was expelled from there for criticizing the president of the association. Together with other painters, he organized the New Secession opposition group.

The last years of the artist’s life

After the First World War, Emil Nolde took Danish citizenship, but did not live in Denmark and moved to the city of Neukirchen, where he bought a house on Seebühl hill. At this time, active political processes were taking place in Germany, as a result of which a controversial page appeared in Nolde’s biography – the artist liked the direction in which the country was moving, he even joined the National Socialist Party and attended the ceremony in honor of the Beer putsch. Nolde gets to know Himmler closely, and his paintings adorn the walls of Goebbels’ house.

But, despite the fact that Emil Nolde himself positioned himself as a simple artist, glorifying the uniqueness of Germany, its culture, history and land, the social-nationalists saw him as an expressionist. The central exhibit of the infamous exhibition of degenerate art was the “Life of Christ”, created in nine parts in 1911-1912. Emil Nolde was expelled from the academy, forbidden to work in his profession and draw. His paintings were seized from museums and galleries, confiscated and destroyed.

The artist tried to reach the top of the Nazis with requests for a review of the case and even created propaganda anti-Semitic posters, but to no avail. Until the end of World War II, he retired to his house and secretly created miniature watercolors (1300 works in total), which he hid in the garden.

After the war, the master was recognized as a genius who suffered from the Nazi regime. Emil Nolde was invited to exhibitions, Siegfried Lenz wrote a book about him “The German Lesson”, and the house in Seebühl was converted into a museum. The painter lived to a respectable age and left this world on April 13, 1956.