Christian Rohlfs | Giant Expressionist Canvas Art | The Temptation of Christ

The Temptation of Christ — Christian RohlfsA giant Expressionist canvas print in gold and black. The warm cream-gold field pushes the room's own light back up the wall while the one red figure holds the centre at standing height, so a living room, an entryway or a hotel reception gains a tall anchor instead of a blank vertical run.Visual PresencePrinted two metres tall, the cream and gold ground throws warm light back into the room, so a living room reads softer and brighter with it up rather than darker, despite how much black sits in the picture. From the far side of the space only two things carry — the red robe standing upright and the heavy dark shape pressing against it — which is why this fills a tall wall on its own instead of needing a group of frames around it. Up close the paint is ridged and scraped back to the weave, so raking light from a lamp or a window catches the surface and the wall keeps shifting through the day.About the ArtChristian Rohlfs (1849–1938), Expressionism, painted 1914. Christian Rohlfs (1849–1938), German Expressionism, painted 1914. We chose it because Rohlfs arrived at this language late. He was fifty-two when Karl Ernst Osthaus gave him a studio in Hagen in 1901, on the estate that became the Museum Folkwang, and he was the first artist to work there; meetings with Munch and Nolde and the sight of Van Gogh turned him. He was in his mid-sixties when he painted this, breaking Christ and the tempter into scraped strokes. In 1937 the Nazis expelled him from the Prussian Academy and hung seventeen of his paintings as degenerate art. Oil on canvas, 100.5 by 60.5 centimetres, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, Gm2037.Size & FinishPrinted to order in 7 sizes from 80×120 cm up to 200×300 cm, as a rolled giclée print, stretched canvas, or in a black, white or natural oak gallery-style floating frame. 320g professional and 380g linen canvas. Size and colour are fully customisable on request. Rolled prints ship free worldwide. Stretched and oak-framed prints ship free within Australia, fully insured, in 2–3 weeks.