Franz Nölken - Am Brunnen - 1904 - Hamburger Kunsthalle

Franz NölkenBiographical timeline
@ the Galerie Herold. - 4 November 1918, near La Capelle) was a German

Expressionist 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 ...

painter; occasionally associated with

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

, an artists' society in Dresden.

Biography

Franz Noelken was born 1884 5.May in Hamburg, At the age of sixteen, he began attending the Johanneum, a liberal arts gymnasium. On the advice of

Alfred Lichtwark Alfred Lichtwark (14 November 1852 – 13 January 1914) was a German art historian, museum curator, and art educator in Hamburg. He is one of the founders of museum education and the art education movement. Background and career Alfred Li ...

, the Director of the

Hamburger Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...

, he took classes from Arthur Siebelist, who eschewed the Academic approach and took his students to paint en plein aire. He joined the in 1903 and, the following year, had his first exhibition at the prestigious with fellow students Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann, Fritz Friedrichs, Walter Alfred Rosam and . He undertook a study trip to his birthplace, near Soest, in 1905, where he met the businessman, Ernst Rump, a supporter of the arts who would later become his patron. Together with Ahlers-Hestermann and Rosam, he went to Paris in 1907 and mingled with the artists at

Le Dôme Café Le Dôme Café () or Café du Dôme is a restaurant in Montparnasse, Paris that first opened in . Based on the example established by La Closerie des Lilas (created in 1847) and followed by Café de la Rotonde (created in 1911), Le Select (creat ...

. In 1908, at the invitation of

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in R ...

, he joined

and exhibited with them in 1909 and 1910. He resigned in 1912, but would return later. Meanwhile, in 1909, he made another trip to Paris, where he studied with

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

at his short-lived Académie. Upon returning from Paris, he took

Anita Rée Anita Clara Rée (born 9 February 1885 in Hamburg, died 12 December 1933 in Kampen) was a German avant-garde painter during the Weimar Republic. She killed herself after the anti-Semitic government declared her work degenerate. Her works were s ...

as a student and, together with Ahlers-Hestermann, created a studio. The arrangement was brief, as Rée apparently fell in love with Nölken and her affections were not returned.Brief biography of Rée
@ FemBio. He became a teacher at a private art school for women in 1912. He also made friends with the composer, Max Reger (Nölken was an excellent amateur pianist), and painted numerous portraits of him, one of which was purchased by one of Nölken's patrons,

Oskar Troplowitz Oscar Troplowitz (18 January 1863 – 27 April 1918) was a German pharmacist and entrepreneur. Troplowitz trained at Heidelberg University and in 1890 he purchased Beiersdorf AG, which at the time was a chemist's shop and laboratory in Hamburg r ...

, to hang in his billiard room. In 1914, he made another trip to Paris. He almost avoided service in World War I, but was drafted in 1917 and killed a week before the war ended, near La Capelle on the Belgian border. Two streets are named after him, in the

Barmbek Barmbek (), until 27 September 1946 ''Barmbeck'', is the name of a former village that was absorbed into the city of Hamburg, Germany. In 1951 it was divided into the quarters '' Barmbek-Süd'', '' Barmbek-Nord'' and '' Dulsberg'' in the borough ' ...

district of Hamburg and in Soest.

Selected paintings

File:Nölken, Reger.jpg, Max Reger at work File:NölkenKinderGarten.jpg, Kindergarten File:Franz Nölken - Dorfstraße.jpg, Village Street File:Franz-Noelken Schlafender-Weiblicher-Akt-vor-einem-Spiegel 1915.jpg, Sleeping Female Nude
by a Mirror File:Franz Nölken Kindergruppe im Park.jpg, Group of Children in the Park

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Nölken.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nolken, Franz 1884 births 1918 deaths 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German Expressionist painters German military personnel killed in World War I Artists from Hamburg

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links