This Viewing Room brings together a focused selection of works by Emil Nolde, spanning from his Brücke period Brücke to his works of the 1920s. The theme of women takes center stage: The selection highlights the diverse roles and manifestations of female figures in Nolde’s works—from the peasant woman of the countryside to the intellectual Rosa Schapire, through to his years in the big city of Berlin, the dance-like stage figure, and the intimate family portrait.
The presentation focuses on the early painting *Flower Garden: Peasant Woman Knitting* (1908), created during a pivotal phase of Nolde’s artistic development, as he increasingly turned toward the expressive freedom of German Expressionism. At the same time, the work reflects the artist’s background as the son of a farming family.
The 1907 etching *Miss Dr. Sch. (Rosa Schapire) * was created during Nolde’s brief membership in Brücke, which he joined in 1906 and left as early as November 1907. The portrait depicts the influential art historian, collector, and women’s rights activist Rosa Schapire, one of the key patrons of German Expressionism.
"Girl's Profile (Girl with a Hat) " is an etching created in Berlin, where Nolde closely observed urban life and its inhabitants. Around 1911, he produced a series of works depicting people in the big city—fleeting impressions of street scenes and encounters.
The print *Death as a Dancer* takes up the late-medieval motif of the Dance of Death and depicts grotesque figures surrounding a dancing girl whose bones are already visible. The later etching *Eva* from 1923, on the other hand, reveals a calmer and more psychologically intense form of portraiture.
