Editing Christian Rohlfs

{{Short description|German painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Christian Rohlfs
| image            = Rohlfs - Selbstbildnis, 1918.jpeg
| image_size       = 200px
| alt              = 
| caption          = Christian Rohlfs, self-portrait (1918)
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| birth_name       = Christian Rohlfs
| birth_date       = 22 November 1849
| birth_place      = [[Groß Niendorf (Holstein)|Groß Niendorf]], [[Duchy of Holstein|Holstein]], [[German Confederation|Germany]]
| death_date       = 8 January 1938
| death_place      = [[Hagen]], [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]
| resting_place    = 
| nationality      = German
| residence        = 
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| known_for        = 
| notable_works    = 
| style            = 
| movement         =
| spouse           = 
| partner          = 
| awards           = 
| elected          = 
| patrons          = 
| memorials        = 
| website          = 
| module           = 
}}

'''Christian Rohlfs''' (November 22, 1849 - January 8, 1938) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the important representatives of [[Germany|German]] [[expressionism]].

==Early life and education==
[[File:Christian Rohlfs - Abstraction (the Blue Mountain) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|180px|''Abstraction (the Blue Mountain)'' (1912)]]
He was born in [[Groß Niendorf (Holstein)|Groß Niendorf]], [[Kreis Segeberg]] in [[Prussia]]. He took up painting as a teenager while convalescing from an infection<ref name=met/> that was eventually to lead to the amputation of a leg in 1874.<ref name=germany>{{cite book |title=German Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1905 1985|type=Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London|chapter=Christian Rohlfs|year=1985 |publisher= Royal Academy of Arts/ Prestel Verlag |location= London|pages=497–8}}</ref> He began his formal artistic education  in  Berlin,<ref name=germany/> before transferring, in 1870, to the Weimar Academy.<ref name=met/>

==Professional career==
In 1901 Rohlfs left Weimar for [[Hagen]], where through the architect [[Henry van de Velde|Henri van der Velde]] got to know the art collector [[Karl Ernst Osthaus]] who offered him a studio in an estate which would become the [[Museum Folkwang]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Barron|first=Stephanie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHYOzQEACAAJ|title="Entartete Kunst": das Schicksal der Avantgarde im Nazi-Deutschland : [eine Ausstellung des] Los Angeles County Museum of Art [übernommen vom] Deutschen Historischen Museum|date=1992|publisher=[[Hirmer Publishers]]|isbn=3-7774-5880-5|pages=331–332|language=de}}</ref> Rohlfs was the first artist to begin to work there.<ref name=":1" /> Meetings with [[Edvard Munch]] and [[Emil Nolde]] and the experience of seeing the works of  [[Vincent van Gogh]]  inspired him to move towards the expressionist style, in which he would work for the rest of his career.<ref name="met">{{cite web|title=Christian Rohlfs (German, 1849–1938)|publisher=Museum of Modern Art, New York|url=http://www.moma.org/collection_ge/artist.php?artist_id=5000|access-date=14 December 2013}}</ref>

In 1908, at the age of 60, he made his first prints after seeing an exhibition of works by the expressionist group ''[[Die Brücke]]''.  He went on to make 185 in total, almost all [[woodcuts]] or [[linocut]]s.<ref name="met" /> He lived in Munich and the Tyrol in 1910–12, before returning to Hagen.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}. The outbreak of [[World War I]] worried Rohlfs such, that for some time he felt unable to paint.<ref name=":1" /> In rare instances he experimented with heavily hand-coloring his prints, onto the verge of painting and sometimes well after they were made, as in his 1919 recoloring of the prior year's ''Der Gefangene''.<ref>Cole, William. [http://artinprint.org/article/christian-rohlfs-der-gefangene/ "Christian Rohlfs: ''Der Gefangene'',"] ''Art in Print'', Vol. 4 No. 1 (May–June 2014).</ref>

In May 1922 he attended the [[International Congress of Progressive Artists]] and signed the "Founding Proclamation of the Union of Progressive International Artists".<ref name="Review">{{cite web |last1=van Doesburg |first1=Theo |title=De Stijl, "A Short Review of the Proceedings [of the Congress of International Progressive Artists], Followed by the Statements Made by the Artists' Groups" (1922) |url=https://modernistarchitecture.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/de-stijl-%E2%80%9Ca-short-review-of-the-proceedings-of-the-congress-of-international-progressive-artists-followed-by-the-statements-made-by-the-artists%E2%80%99-groups%E2%80%9D-1922/ |website=modernistarchitecture.wordpress.com |publisher=Ross Lawrence Wolfe |access-date=30 November 2018}}</ref> In 1937 the Nazis expelled him from the [[Prussian Academy of Arts]], condemned his work as [[degenerate art|degenerate]], and removed his works from public collections.<ref name="met" /> Seventeen of his paintings were exhibited in the [[Degenerate Art Exhibition]] in 1937.<ref name=":1" />  He died in [[Hagen]], [[Westfalia]], on  8 January 1938.<ref name=":1" />

===Style and technique===
Throughout his career he working through a variety of  academic, naturalist, [[Impressionism|impressionist]], and Post-Impressionist styles.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2014-09-30|title=Christian Rohlfs|url=https://www.germanexpressionismleicester.org/leicesters-collection/artists-and-artworks/christian-rohlfs/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-08|website=www.germanexpressionismleicester.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314165120/http://www.germanexpressionismleicester.org:80/leicesters-collection/artists-and-artworks/christian-rohlfs/ |archive-date=2016-03-14 }}</ref> He has often been viewed as one of the first Expressionists.<ref name=":1" />

===Reception===
After his death, the German Nazi authorities prohibited the sale of his paintings.<ref name=":1" /> Commemorative exhibitions were organized by the [[Kunstmuseum Basel]] and the [[Kunsthalle Bern|Berner Kunsthalle]].<ref name=":1" />

==Recognition==
* In 1929 the town of Hagen opened a Christian Rohlfs Museum.<ref name="germany" /> 
* Honorary citizen of [[Hagen]]<ref name=":1" />
* Honorary Doctorate by [[University of Kiel]]<ref name=":1" />
* Honorary Doctorate by [[RWTH Aachen University|University of Aachen]]<ref name=":1" />

==Works==
<gallery class="center">
Christian Rohlfs - Hügelige Landschaft im Spätherbst.jpg|Hilly landscape in late autumn, 1900
1912 Rohlfs Stiftskirche St. Patrokli in Soest anagoria.JPG|Collegiate Church of St. Patroclus in Soest, 1912, [[Germanisches Nationalmuseum]]
1912 Rohlfs Visionaere Landschaft anagoria.JPG|Landscape vision, 1912, [[Germanisches Nationalmuseum]]
1914 Rohlfs Versuchung Christi anagoria.JPG|The temptation of Christ, 1914, [[Germanisches Nationalmuseum]]
File:Rohlfs - Sternbrücke in Weimar.jpeg|Sternbrücke in Weimar., (ca. 1917)
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071022100449/http://ludorff.com/ap/rohlfs/rohlfse.html Biography & Works by Christian Rohlfs] Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf, Germany
* {{PM20|FID=pe/014872}}

{{Degenerate art}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohlfs, Christian}}
[[Category:1849 births]]
[[Category:1938 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German painters]]
[[Category:German male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century German painters]]
[[Category:20th-century German male artists]]
[[Category:German Expressionist painters]]
[[Category:People from Segeberg]]
[[Category:19th-century German male artists]]