He was born in Tullstorp, Malmö, Skåne County, Sweden the son of Nils and Ingrid (Nordfeldt) Olsson. He adopted his mother"s surname to avoid confusion with the maritime artist (Alfred) Julius Olsson, whose work was then becoming popular in Europe and America.
He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and studied with Frederick Richardson. He later apprenticed with Albert Herter in New York City. He studied in Paris at the Académie Julian.
The family immigrated to the United States in 1892. He first worked as a typesetter for the Swedish language newspaper, Det Rätta Hemlandet. During World War I he was in San Francisco where he registered for the draft.
During the war, Nordfeldt was assigned to San Francisco to supervise the camouflage of merchant ships.
After his service in World War I, he moved to Taos, New Mexico. In 1921, Nordfeldt joined the Taos Society of Artists.
In the late 1930s he relocated to Lambertville, New Jersey. Throughout the 1930s, Nordfeldt taught at various schools including Utah State College, the Wichita Art Association and the Minneapolis School of Artist
From 1941-1943, he was a guest professor for the Department of Art of the University of Texas.
Nordfeldt worked in diverse styles and media, including etchings and prints, portraiture, still lifes, and landscapes. Nordfeldt strove for a flattening of form and distortion of space, creating stylized images. He chose subjects laden with emotional power, especially nature and religious scenes.
Biographical sketches for Nordfeld are published in most standard art reference works.
His papers are held in the Manuscript Collections of the Archives of American Artist He died in Henderson, Texas on April 21, 1955.
1906 Silver Medal, International Print Exhibition in Milan, Italy 1915 Silver Medal, Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California 1926 Bronze Medal, Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1926 Logan Medal of the Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois 1927 First Prize, Brooklyn Society of Etchers in Brooklyn, New York 1928 First Prize, Chicago Society of Etchers in Chicago, Illinois 1937 Yetter Prize for Painting from the Denver Art Museum 1947 Purchase Prize for Painting from the Worcester Art Museum 1949 Bronze Medal, from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, District of Columbia
