The studio with religious paintings
Nolde’s former studio is reserved for the painter’s religious paintings. Nolde regards these “pictures of legends and biblical paintings”, as he calls them, as the peak of his life’s work. There are approximately fifty paintings, which he assigns to this canon. They were scandalous from the very beginning. Max Liebermann, the painter and president of the Berlin secession, remarked in his Berlin accent during an evaluation in 1910: “If this painting is exhibited, I will resign from my office!” As a consequence, Nolde’s Pfingstbild (Whitsuntide painting, which is today part of the collection of the New National Gallery in Berlin) was rejected.
“Das Leben Christi” (The life of Christ, 1911/1912), consisting of nine parts, is the central work in the former studio, opposite which the impressive painting of “Judas bei den Hohepriestern” (Judas with the High Priests) (see illustration on the right) is presented this year. It is flanked by, among others, the oil paintings of “Erste Menschen” (The First Humans, 1922) and “Pharaos Tochter findet Moses” (Pharaoh’s Daughter Finds Moses, 1910).