ROHLFS, Christian—attributed

Probably a view of Weimar with the City Palace

Oil on canvas on board. Without signature, inscribed on the reverse. Probably around 1890.

34 x 24.5 cm. framed : 51.5 x 42 cm (black lacquer frame).

Cityscape viewed from a hill with bare birch trees in bright sunshine.

If this is indeed the work of the artist Christian Rohlfs, then the following biographical information applies: German painter and graphic artist in Weimar, Munich, and Ascona (1849, Niendorf, Holstein – 1938, Hagen, Westphalia). A student of Thumann at the Grand Ducal Art School in Weimar; from 1884 onward, he worked as a freelance artist in Weimar. During this period, he increasingly turned to Impressionism. In 1901, he taught at the Folkwang School in Hagen. By 1910 at the latest, he was considered an Expressionist and was elected to the jury of the German Artists’ Association. His art was deemed “degenerate” during the Nazi era. Rohlfs was banned from exhibiting, and several hundred of his works were confiscated.

Bibliography: Thieme/Becker.