Christian Rohlfs (1849-1938)

Christian Rohlfs was one of the artistic fathers of the German Expressionist art movement. A generation older than Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein or Erich Heckel, they found inspiration in his art and as a fellow artist working alongside them, great support for their artistic ideas and ideals. As a professor at the Folkwangschule in Hagen and jury member in important artist’s societies, he also helped to build the needed recognition for this German avant-garde group. In 1924 he was awarded a membership at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

Rohlfs was posthumously honoured with the exhibition of his works at the first Documenta in Kassel in 1955, a recognition of his importance as a Modern artist of the early 20th Century.