Background
Christian Rohfls was born on November 22, 1849, in Groß Niendorf, Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Christian Rohfls was born on November 22, 1849, in Groß Niendorf, Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
During a two-year sickbed confinement from 1864-1866 Rohlfs was nursed by a doctor called Stolle, who discovered and supported the painting talent of the boy. At this time, the first drawings came into being. Upon Theodor Storm's suggestion and recommendation, Christian Rohlfs went to Berlin and began his studies of painting at the Großherzogliche Kunstakademie in Weimar in 1870. A leg condition aggravated so badly during the following years that one of his legs was amputated in 1873.
Around 1900, Christian Rohfls began painting with Emil Nolde and was also influenced by the spontaneous and emotional quality of his friend’s work.
In 1901 he left Weimar for Hagen, where the collector Karl Ernst Osthaus had offered him a studio in the modern art museum, he set up there. Through this exposure to the avant-garde, including meeting Edvard Munch in 1904 and Emil Nolde a year later, and seeing Van Gogh's choppy brushstrokes and vibrant coloring, his work moved into its final, Expressionist phase.
Made first of 185 prints at age sixty, in 1908, after seeing an exhibition of Brücke prints. Aside from two lithographs, worked exclusively in woodcut and linoleum cut. Rarely editioned his work, preferring to create unique or variant impressions by hand-printing his own blocks, which he inked with a brush and then printed through rubbing or by applying pressure from a weighted cigar box. Concentrated mostly on figurative subjects, as well as biblical themes in response to World War I. Stopped making new motifs in 1926, but continued printing new impressions from old blocks.
In 1937 Nazis expelled him from the Prussian Academy of Arts, condemned him as degenerate, and removed 412 of his works from public collections.
Cerberus
1912Profile of a Young Girl
1911Weißer Nebel überm See
1933Landscape (Polling)
1911Song Bird
1912Man in a Top Hat
1935The Soldier
1914Idol (Torso with Raised Hand)
1921Conversation
1909Children
1915Prisoner
1918Death
1913Sermon on the Mount
1916Large Heads (2 Heads I)
1921Dogs
1925Cat
1913Two Dancers
1913Promenade (Couple)
1921Blue Fan Dancer
1916Sonnenuntergang am Lago Maggiore
1929Couple I
1910In Love (Verliebt)
1912Sorceress (Hexe)
1910Street in Soest
1911Death as a Juggler (Revolution)
1919Rote Tulpen
1926Three Women
1912Three Heads
1912Street Urchin (Head with Hat)
1921Christian Rohlfs and his wife Helene Vogt spent a large part of each year in Ascona on Lake Maggiore.