One of the earliest German expressionists and a member of the prolific yet short-lived secessionist movement Die Brücke, Emil Nolde produced many colorful paintings across his career, including portraits, religious tableaus, and landscapes depicting seasides and bustling Berlin street scenes. His work has been exhibited at major museums worldwide, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art.
           
With more than one hundred full-color reproductions and informative essays by Katharina Lovecky, Manfred Reuther, Andreas Fluck, Christian Ring, Stefan Koja, and Agnes Husslein-Arco, this book traces the development of Nolde’s distinctive style and technique. From his beginnings as a woodcarver, draftsman, and furniture maker, Nolde was influenced by the dark, atmospheric palettes of painters like Wilhelm Leibl, Arnold Böcklin, and Hans von Marées. Later, upon encountering the works of the post-impressionists Paul Gauguin, Edward Munch, and Vincent van Gogh, Nolde developed a pictorial language that provided a new and fertile direction for his work. Perhaps most intriguing and least well-documented are the late-career works of Nolde—what he termed his “unpainted pictures,” created during the period he was prohibited to paint by the Third Reich. Comprising more than one thousand small-scale watercolors created entirely in secret and intended to be developed into paintings, these works from the early 1940s are infused with fantastical elements and constitute an important focal point for the book.
             
Nolde’s work served as a major influence on the later movements of expressionism, and this book, accompanying an exhibition at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna, offers a comprehensive look back at his oeuvre.