Nauen, Heinrich

Heinrich Nauen belonged to the circle of Rhenish Expressionists; from 1897 to 1899, he completed his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, and he then set forth his studies, e.g., in Stuttgart, with Leopold von Kalckreuth. His encounter with the work of van Gogh was formative, and he adapted his style. In 1906 he moved to Berlin, where he took part in the exhibitions of the Berlin Secession and expanded his stylistic spectrum under the personal impression made by artists like Max Beckmann, Emil Nolde and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After he moved back to the Lower Rhine region, where he originally came from, his style was exposed to further impulses stemming from the Rhenish Expressionists, among others from his friend August Macke. In 1913 Nauen took part in Macke’s exhibition of the “Rheinischer Expressionismus” in Bonn. After the First World War Nauen received a professorship at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, which he had to give up under the Nazis, as they had included him among the “degenerate” artists since 1933. Nauen’s painting displays an expressive style featuring a characteristic simplification of forms, which are often articulated with sharp edges and thus outwardly appear to be inspired by Cubism – also characteristic are the radiant, powerful tonalities, which are moderated in the form of a cooler palette following the First World War. Portraits, still lifes and landscapes, but also allegorical-religious subjects all belonged to his thematic repertoire. The six wall paintings executed in tempera technique for Drove Castle (1912/13), located near Düren, are among his most important works.