






About Emil Nolde
German · 1867–1956 · Expressionism
Painted flowers and religious scenes with colours that make Fauvism look calm. Joined the Nazi Party expecting his art would be welcomed.
Read full biography →Emil Nolde's works are held in 33 museums worldwide, including National Gallery of Art, Museum Ludwig, and Museum Folkwang.
🇦🇹 Austria
2 museums
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3 works
Batliner Collection
Vienna, Austria
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3 works
Albertina
Palais Erzherzog Albrecht, Austria
🇩🇰 Denmark
1 museum
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12 works
Statens Museum for Kunst
Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark
🇩🇪 Germany
18 museums
- 35 works
Museum Ludwig
Gebäudekomplex der Kölner Philharmonie und des Museum Ludwig, Germany
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18 works
Museum Folkwang
Stadtbezirk II (Essen), Germany
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14 works
Nolde Museum Seebüll
Seebüll, Germany
- 12 works
Bavarian State Painting Collections
Munich, Germany
- 9 works
Wallraf–Richartz Museum
Ungersbau, Germany
- 7 works
Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie, Germany
- 6 works
Brücke Museum
Dahlem, Germany
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5 works
Hamburger Kunsthalle
Hamburg-Altstadt, Germany
- 4 works
Alte Nationalgalerie
Berlin-Mitte, Germany
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4 works
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe, Germany
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3 works
Sprengel Museum
Sammlungszentrum Hannover, Germany
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3 works
Städel Museum
Frankfurt, Germany
- 3 works
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
Dresden, Germany
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2 works
Lehmbruck Museum
Duisburg, Germany
- 2 works
Kunsthalle Mannheim
Mannheim, Germany
- 2 works
Altonaer Museum
Ottensen, Germany
- 2 works
Angermuseum
Erfurter Waage, Germany
- 2 works
Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr
Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
Also here
🇪🇸 Spain
1 museum
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8 works
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Palace of Villahermosa, Spain
🇨🇭 Switzerland
1 museum
- 3 works
Kunsthaus Zürich
Zurich, Switzerland
🇺🇸 United States
10 museums
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104 works
National Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C., United States
Mon–Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun 11:00–18:00FreeArchives – Navy Memorial (Green & Yellow)Confirm on museum website before visiting. -
4 works
Museum of Modern Art
Midtown Manhattan, United States
Daily 10:30–17:30 (Sat until 19:00; first Fri of month until 20:00)Adults $30, students $17Fifth Av / 53 St (E, M)Confirm on museum website before visiting. -
3 works
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Buffalo, United States
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3 works
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City, United States
Sun–Tue, Thu 10:00–17:00; Fri–Sat 10:00–21:00; closed WedAdults $30, students $17 (pay-what-you-wish for NY residents)86 St (4, 5, 6)Confirm on museum website before visiting. -
2 works
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
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2 works
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Richmond, United States
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2 works
Busch–Reisinger Museum
Cambridge, United States
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2 works
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Upper East Side, United States
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2 works
Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, United States
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2 works
Detroit Institute of Arts
Midtown Detroit, United States
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I see Emil Nolde's work?
Nolde's paintings are held by many museums internationally. In Germany, major collections are at the Nolde Stiftung Seebüll; the Brücke Museum, Berlin; the Hamburger Kunsthalle; and the Museum Folkwang, Essen. The Nolde Stiftung Seebüll, near the German-Danish border, holds the most comprehensive collection. Nolde lived and worked at Seebüll from 1927 until his death in 1956. The Stiftung displays a rotating selection of his oils, watercolours, and prints. The Brücke Museum owns a number of Nolde's works from his time as a member of the Die Brücke group (1906-1907). The Hamburger Kunsthalle has a collection of German Expressionist art, including paintings by Nolde. The Museum Folkwang's holdings include important early paintings. Outside Germany, The Museum of Modern Art in New York has a selection of his prints. The Tate holds a number of his watercolours and prints. These and other institutions offer opportunities to view Nolde's diverse output.What should I know about Emil Nolde's prints?
Emil Nolde (born in Schleswig, 1867; died in Seebüll, 1956) was a painter, watercolourist, and printmaker associated with German Expressionism. He trained as a woodcarver before studying painting. In 1902, he adopted the name of his birthplace. Nolde's printmaking output includes around 525 works, created mostly before 1926. These are primarily unpublished etchings and woodcuts, often in black and white. He frequently developed his images through multiple states. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff introduced Nolde to woodcut techniques in 1906, when Nolde briefly joined the Brücke group; Nolde, in turn, taught Brücke members his etching methods. Lithography was another important medium for Nolde. He used it to experiment with colour, producing several large-scale works with numerous colour variations in 1913. His prints, like his other work, explored Expressionist themes. These included urban nightlife, northern regions, biblical scenes, and what he considered "primitive" subjects. Examples of his prints include the 1912 woodcut *Prophet*, and the colour lithographs *Jumping Jacks* (1913), *Actress* (1913), and *Russian Woman* (1913).Why are Emil Nolde's works important today?
Emil Nolde (born Emil Hansen in 1867) was a German-Danish Expressionist painter and printmaker. He is known for his intense colours and emotional force. Nolde's art is still relevant because of his handling of colour, and the subjective, emotional power of his works. Nolde briefly joined the *Brücke* group in 1906. This Dresden-based group shared Nolde's interest in graphic arts and admiration for artists such as Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh. His paintings often featured religious subjects, scenes from mythology, and figures in landscapes. For example, *Christ among the Children* (1910) uses light and dark to express the biblical story. Despite his support for the Nazi regime, the authorities later condemned Nolde's art. They confiscated his paintings and forbade him from painting. This complicated history adds another layer to the appreciation and interpretation of his art. Nolde died in 1956 in Seebüll, Germany.Emil Nolde facts?
Emil Nolde was born in North Schleswig, near Nolde, Germany, and changed his name to Nolde in 1902, after his birthplace. In 1906, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff invited him to join Brücke, and he taught Brücke members about woodcut techniques.Who is Emil Nolde?
Emil Nolde was born Emil Hansen in North Schleswig, near Nolde, Germany, on August 7, 1867. He worked as an ornamental carver in furniture factories before teaching ornamental drawing and modelling at the Industrie und Gewerbemuseum.What techniques or materials did Emil Nolde use?
Emil Nolde was a painter, printmaker, and watercolourist. He is known for a style involving intense colour and thick, gestural impasto. Nolde's method involved working impulsively, often changing his mind and piling colour on colour. He might also scrape the brush back and forth, or add brushloads of white into wet blues and blacks, despite knowing it was hopeless. Some paintings look like cracked moulds, while others are scratched and rubbed. Nolde trained as a woodcarver. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff introduced him to woodcut in 1906, and Nolde taught Brücke members his etching techniques. Nolde ultimately produced 525 prints, almost all before 1926, mostly unpublished etchings and woodcuts in black and white. He often developed his images through several states. He frequently used lithography to experiment with colour, including several monumental works printed in numerous colour variations in 1913. Colour was Nolde's chief means of expression. He had a physical relationship to colours, noting "it was as if they loved my hands".Who did Emil Nolde influence?
Emil Nolde, a key figure in German Expressionism, did not have direct students or a formal school. However, his approach to colour and intensely personal expression influenced later artists. Courbet's seascapes, particularly "The Wave", anticipated Nolde's own seascapes; Nolde's debt to Courbet's imagery and palette knife technique is clear. Nolde, along with other Expressionists, was familiar with museum collections in Berlin. Nolde was briefly a member of Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group of German Expressionist artists. Although he soon distanced himself from the group to pursue his own artistic vision, his involvement indicates a shared sensibility with artists like Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. His departure from the Berlin Secession also cleared the path for younger artists. Christian Rohlfs may have been influenced by Nolde's colour work. Nolde's art, characterised by bold colours and emotional intensity, made an impact on the development of Expressionism.Who influenced Emil Nolde?
Emil Nolde was exposed to a number of artistic influences during his formative years. As a young man, he studied the work of artists like Edvard Munch and James Ensor, both of whom employed intense colour and explored themes of emotional distress in their paintings. Nolde's early training as a woodcarver also shaped his artistic sensibilities, instilling in him an appreciation for the expressive potential of simple forms. He enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1899; however, he soon left, frustrated with academic art training. Later, Nolde joined the artist group Die Brücke (The Bridge) in 1906. This short period of association exposed him to fellow Expressionist painters like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. Die Brücke artists shared an interest in primitivism, and they looked to non-Western art for inspiration. Nolde's engagement with their ideas encouraged him to experiment further with colour and form in his own work. Although his time with Die Brücke was brief, the connections he made there had a lasting impact on his artistic development.
Sources
Where to See guide aggregates verified holdings of Emil Nolde's works across the following collections.
- [1] museum Brooklyn Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum Buffalo AKG Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] museum Städel Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [4] museum National Galleries Scotland Used for: museum holdings.
- [5] museum Nolde Museum Seebüll Used for: museum holdings.
- [6] museum Sprengel Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [7] book Starr Figura, German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse Used for: biography.
- [8] book guggenheim-guhe00solo Used for: biography.
- [9] book Masterpieces of western art : a history of art in 900 individual studies from the Gothic to the present day Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-23. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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