Art at the Flensburg Fjord — Artists & Galleries

Hans-Ruprecht Leiß

*1954 Husum · lives & works in Flensburg

Born in Husum, he studied art education in Flensburg and gave up teaching in 1985. His themes: the sea and its inhabitants in fantastic realism — schools of herring before a city skyline, captains with skulls, ships within bodies. International exhibitions in Helsinki, Frankfurt, New York. He calls himself not a „representative of fantastic realism“ but simply: a „fantastic realist“.

He has not yet solved his „life problem“, which is the sea.

Ole West

*1953 Wedel · lives in Wedel near Hamburg

Studied painting and book illustration in Hamburg. Lived on Norderney 1984–2008, where he founded a painting school. His unique signature: lighthouses, ships and coastal landscapes painted onto original nautical chart cutouts. Prints and limited editions in galleries from Flensburg to New York. His works hang in the Trinity House National Lighthouse Centre Penzance (UK) and the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven.

Ole West is a painter of the North, an artist of the coast.

Hans Christiansen

1866–1945 · born in Flensburg

Hans Christiansen was born in Flensburg in 1866 and is one of the most important German Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) artists of all. He studied in Munich and Paris, lived in Darmstadt as a member of the famous artists' colony on the Mathildenhöhe — and there became one of the defining designers of German Jugendstil around 1900. Posters, interiors, textiles, paintings, graphics: Christiansen mastered every genre with a decorative elegance that makes his style unmistakable. Flensburg has paid him a special tribute: the Hans-Christiansen-Haus at the Museumsberg Flensburg bears his name and houses the most important collection of his works. Anyone visiting the Museumsberg cannot miss Christiansen — the Jugendstil section with his major works is one of the highlights of the entire museum.

Hans Christiansen embodies German Jugendstil like no one else — decorative, symbolist, of an elegance that still captivates today.

Emil Nolde

1867–1956 · Seebüll, North Frisia

One of the most important German Expressionists. Born in 1867 in the German-Danish border region near Tønder. First apprenticed as a wood carver in Flensburg. Lived for decades in Seebüll, ~40 km from Villa Boreal. The house and studio he designed himself is today the Nolde Museum Seebüll — a must-visit. Glowing colours, restless seas, religious visions. Works also at the Museumsberg Flensburg.

I want my paintings to glow like jewels.

Erich Heckel

1883–1970 · four decades on the Flensburg Fjord

Co-founder of the legendary artists' group Brücke. Heckel spent over four decades at his holiday home on the Flensburg Fjord. The fjord landscape became a direct motif of his Expressionist paintings and woodcuts. An important Heckel collection hangs today at the Museumsberg Flensburg (Hans-Christiansen-Haus).

Käte Lassen

1880–1956 · born and died in Flensburg

The most important artist from Flensburg — still too little known today. She spent her whole life painting the fjord, the city and rural life in Schleswig-Holstein in soft North German Impressionism. Her watercolours capture the light of the fjord with a unique intimacy. Works at the Museumsberg Flensburg. Occasionally available at Hamburg auction houses — with serious collector value.