Christian Rohlfs (November 22, 1849 - January 8, 1938) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the important representatives of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

Early life and education

He was born in Groß Niendorf, Kreis Segeberg in

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. He took up painting as a teenager while convalescing from an infection that was eventually to lead to the amputation of a leg in 1874. He began his formal artistic education in Berlin, before transferring, in 1870, to the Weimar Academy.

Professional career

In 1901 Rohlfs left Weimar for

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

, where through the architect Henri van der Velde got to know the art collector Karl Ernst Osthaus who offered him a studio in an estate which would become the

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

. Rohlfs was the first artist to begin to work there. Meetings with

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

and Emil Nolde and the experience of seeing the works of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

inspired him to move towards the expressionist style, in which he would work for the rest of his career. In 1908, at the age of 60, he made his first prints after seeing an exhibition of works by the expressionist group ''

Die Brücke Die Brücke (The Bridge), also known as Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke, was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. The founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Karl Schmidt-R ...

''. He went on to make 185 in total, almost all

woodcuts Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with Chisel#Gouge, gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts ...

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...

s. He lived in Munich and the Tyrol in 1910–12, before returning to Hagen.. The outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

worried Rohlfs such, that for some time he felt unable to paint. In rare instances he experimented with heavily hand-coloring his prints, onto the verge of painting and sometimes well after they were made, as in his 1919 recoloring of the prior year's ''Der Gefangene''.Cole, William
"Christian Rohlfs: ''Der Gefangene'',"
''Art in Print'', Vol. 4 No. 1 (May–June 2014). In May 1922 he attended the International Congress of Progressive Artists and signed the "Founding Proclamation of the Union of Progressive International Artists". In 1937 the Nazis expelled him from the

Prussian Academy of Arts The Prussian Academy of Arts () was a state arts academy first established in 1694 by prince-elector Frederick III of Electorate of Brandenburg, Brandenburg in Berlin, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Kingdom of ...

, condemned his work as degenerate, and removed his works from public collections. Seventeen of his paintings were exhibited in the

Degenerate Art Exhibition The Degenerate Art exhibition () was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in count ...

in 1937. He died in

, Westfalia, on 8 January 1938.

Style and technique

Throughout his career he working through a variety of academic, naturalist,

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, and Post-Impressionist styles. He has often been viewed as one of the first Expressionists.

Reception

After his death, the German Nazi authorities prohibited the sale of his paintings. Commemorative exhibitions were organized by the

Kunstmuseum Basel The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends ba ...

and the Berner Kunsthalle.

Recognition

* In 1929 the town of Hagen opened a Christian Rohlfs Museum. * Honorary citizen of

* Honorary Doctorate by

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

* Honorary Doctorate by

University of Aachen RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

Works

Christian Rohlfs - Hügelige Landschaft im Spätherbst.jpg, Hilly landscape in late autumn, 1900 1912 Rohlfs Stiftskirche St. Patrokli in Soest anagoria.JPG, Collegiate Church of St. Patroclus in Soest, 1912,

Germanisches Nationalmuseum The ''Germanisches Nationalmuseum'' is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The museum is Germany' ...

1912 Rohlfs Visionaere Landschaft anagoria.JPG, Landscape vision, 1912,

1914 Rohlfs Versuchung Christi anagoria.JPG, The temptation of Christ, 1914,

File:Rohlfs - Sternbrücke in Weimar.jpeg, Sternbrücke in Weimar., (ca. 1917)

References

External links

Biography & Works by Christian Rohlfs
Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf, Germany * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rohlfs, Christian 1849 births 1938 deaths 19th-century German painters German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German Expressionist painters People from Segeberg 19th-century German male artists