25 Facts About Nell Walden

Nelly Anna Charlotta Walden was a Swedish painter, art collector, and writer.

Nell Walden was born in Karlskrona, Sweden, on 29 December 1887 into a clerical Scanian family.

Nell Walden's father Frithiof Roslund was a military preacher, and her mother Hilda Smith came from an affluent Scottish family.

Nell Walden had four younger siblings: Ruth, Lotti, Hilda, and Karl.

The family moved to Landskrona in 1903, where Nell Walden's father became the vicar.

Nell Walden stayed with her grandparents in Trelleborg, where she attended the Trelleborg Elementarskola for Flickor.

Nell Walden graduated in 1904 and entered a school in Lund to study music.

Nell Walden received language lessons in Lubeck during the summer of 1907, and in 1908, she graduated with a degree in organ in Vaxjo.

In 1910, Nell Walden became engaged to Folke Bensow, an architect.

Nell Walden became an imperative figure of Der Sturm, a Berlin-based weekly journal founded by her husband in 1910, and its international network of artists who were then mostly obscure, progressive, and at times radical.

Nell Walden became deeply involved in the expansion of Der Sturm, encompassing a theatre, an art school, a bookstore, and an art gallery.

Together with her husband, Nell Walden ran the art gallery in Berlin, which was highly influential at the time.

Nell Walden started her artistic career in 1915, making art on paper, reverse glass paintings, and working with oil.

Nell Walden's artwork included abstract compositions, with emphasis on human and geometric forms, and occasional sketches of landscapes, greenery, and nature.

Nell Walden experimented with different techniques, such as sgraffito, mosaics, and collages, and painted ceramics, furniture, and book covers.

In 1916, Nell Walden began her formal study of art as a student of the Der Sturm art school in Berlin.

Nell Walden's works were first exhibited at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin in July 1916.

Nell Walden's paintings raised interest and Walden gained more appreciation for her art.

Nell Walden was regarded as "the first abstract painter in Swedish history".

In 1926, Nell Walden married Hans Heimann, and turned her interest towards ethnographic artifacts.

In 1927, Nell Walden held a solo exhibition at Galerie Albert Flechtheim where nearly fifty of her compositions were featured.

In 1933, Felix Stossinger published a collection of Nell Walden's poems entitled Unter Sternen.

Ein Erinneringsbuch an Herwarth Nell Walden und die Kunstler aus dem Sturmkreis and Herwarth Nell Walden.

Nell Walden was honoured with the Order of Vasa in 1967 and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968.

Nell Walden was awarded a silver medal from the Accademia Internazionale Tommaso Campanella in 1970.