German, 19th – 20th century, male.
Born 7 August 1867, in Nolde; died 13 April 1956, in Siekbüll (Schleswig).
Painter, engraver, lithographer, sculptor. Religious subjects, figure compositions, figures, landscapes, seascapes.
Die Brücke, Dachau Artists’ Colony.
The son of a farmer, Emil Nolde’s early economic and social conditions were not conducive to an artistic career. He developed his talents as an apprentice woodcarver from 1884 to 1888 in Flensburg, with Heinrich Sauermann. He then worked as a designer in furniture factories in Munich, Karlsruhe, and Berlin. It was in Karlsruhe, from 1888, that he took up drawing and painting, initially at evening classes, then full-time at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts). From 1889 to 1892, he lived in Berlin, where he worked as a design draughtsman for the Pfaff furniture factory. In 1892, he taught ornamental draughtsmanship at the Gewerbemuseum at St Gall, Switzerland, where he stayed for seven years. It was here that he began to draw and paint watercolours of landscapes and faces in his spare time....
