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Christian Rohlfs

* 1849, Niendorf / Holstein 1938, Hagen

Christian Rohlfs
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* 1849, Niendorf / Holstein, 1938, Hagen

Christian Rohlfs
Following the advice and recommendation of the author Theodor Storm, Rohlfs first moved to Berlin. Later in 1870 he moved to Weimar to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. Mainly naturalistic works arise here. From 1884 on he worked as a freelancer, finding a sponsor for his art in the Grand Duke of Saxon Weimar. Through Henry van de Velde Rohlfs met the founder of the Folkwang museum Karl Ernst Osthaus, who persuaded him to move to Hagen in 1901 to lead an art school. The exhibitions of the artist‘s group Brücke in the Folkwang Museum inspire a late expressionistic style by the then almost sixty-year-old Rohlfs. Main subjects of this period are cityscapes, landscapes and architecture, while colors become the bearer of expression of his works. In 1929 the Christian Rohlfs Museum in Hagen was founded for the artist‘s 80th birthday. The artist is considered to be one of the most important representatives of German Expressionism.

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Bad Homburg, Sinclair Haus

Hagen, Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum

Oldenburg, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte

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Birgit Schulte (Hrsg.): Christian Rohlfs, Musik der Farben : Sammlungskatalog der Werke im Osthaus Museum Hagen. Neuer Folkwang Verlag, Hagen 2009 Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek