Emil Nolde (1867-1956) was born as Emil Hansen in Nolde, a town in the North of Germany. He was initially trained as a woodcarver but started to paint as an independent artist in 1898. Before he settled in 1903 in Alsen during the summer and in…

Nolde had a complete mastery of the watercolour medium. The head, artificially lit from below, appears to have an independent life of its own as it floats into the top left-hand corner of the paper. While the slash of red across the mouth indicates…

During his brief membership of the Brücke, Nolde taught the other artists his etching technique, expressing subtle emotional and psychological feelings through use of dramatic light and shade (chiaroscuro). In this self-portrait his head emerges…

Leicester’s internationally acclaimed collection of German Expressionist art, and the eighty-year history of its development, are being celebrated in a new book. ‘German Expressionism: The Leicester Museums and Galleries’ Collection’ presents a full…

Christian Rohlfs (1849-1938) was born in Nierendorf and studied first in Berlin and then in Weimar where he met Liebermann in 1874. In 1901, he left Weimar and, following an invitation by the collector Karl Ernst Osthaus, went to Hagen where he…

Many developed a radical, modernist approach, placing them firmly within the Expressionist canon of work. Many had found initial success through the Berlin Secession, the breakaway progressive faction at the turn of the century led by Max…

They were: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976) and Fritz Bleyl (who left shortly afterwards). The group was later joined by Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Otto Mueller (1874-1930) and Emil…

Born in Ynsddu, Gwent on June 8th, 1907 into a South Wales colliery family, Trevor Thomas showed a talent for singing as a boy, winning prizes at the Eisteddfods, and he continued to sing through most of his adult life despite being partially…

Alfred Hess (1879-1931) was a wealthy Jewish shoe manufacturer. In the 1920s Hess shoes were a byword for quality, exported all over Europe and abroad from the four large ‘M & L Hess Schuhfabrik’ factories in the town. Alfred Hess also…

Segal’s vision of heads looking down on a village is intentionally rough-hewn, linking to the Brücke, yet perhaps connects more strongly to the approach of Der Blaue Reiter, the rising human forms becoming spiritually attuned to nature, their once…