Expressionism, Fauvism, amd Early 20th Century

Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde was a German expressionist painter, born in 1867. He was famous for making violent religious works, and foreboding landscapes. He started off as a woodcutter but later formally studied art in Paris where he was invited into the group Die Bruke, which was a group of expressionist artists who liked the “storm of colour” in his work. He stayed with this group for only around a year and a half before moving on to different things. He was famous for his religious painting that had demonic mask like faced figures depicted with many colours. Later in his life he lived on the Baltic coast, during which period he created many gloomy low-horizon landscape pieces. During world war two the Nazis forbid his work for being too “decadent”. Once the war ended he presumed painted, but mostly rendered older themes. I really enjoy his work, I think they are kind of eerie feeling but his use of colour also make them beautiful to look at. The sense of movement and expression from the figures really make you feel a sense of story when looking at his paintings.