Christian Rohlfs was born on December 22, 1849 in Niendorf, Holstein in Germany. He was the son of a farmer; in 1870 he studied painting at the Kunstschule in Weimar, where he later taught. A prolonged illness forced him to interrupt his studies which he resumed in 1874. He was influenced by Van Gogh, and encouraged by Emil Nolde.

He visited Paris in the 1870s where he came into contact with the Barbizon school. Under the influence of Alexandre Struys he painted figurative works and realistic nudes. Around 1883 he painted mainly very large landscapes. From 1884 he worked as an independent painter; color became increasingly important and by the end of the 1880s he had developed an independent style much like Impressionism.

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