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c. 1905–1935
Expressionism prioritised raw emotional intensity over realistic depiction. Originating in Germany and Scandinavia, it distorted form and colour to convey anxiety, alienation, and psychological states.
Artists & Works
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch transformed personal trauma — illness, death, and failed love — into an art of universal psychological resonance. The Scream has become a global icon of existential anxiety, while his full output encompasses meditations on nature and mortality.
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Christian Rohlfs
Christian Rohlfs was already in his fifties, trained in academic realism, when contact with Van Gogh and Munch’s work transformed him into one of German Expressionism’s most vivid colourists. Declared a ‘degenerate artist’ by the Nazis in his final years, he kept painting in secret until his death.
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Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley absorbed German Expressionism firsthand in pre-war Berlin, producing bold, emblem-like portraits of military officers charged with coded grief for a lost companion. He later returned to his native Maine, painting its mountains and coastline with the same raw emotional intensity.
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