The Last Supper 1909

Emil Nolde made this painting, The Last Supper, with oils on canvas and a dark and lurid palette. Can’t you imagine Nolde, standing here, bristles loaded with thick impasto, wrestling with the weight of this scene? Look at the churning brushstrokes, how they almost vibrate with a kind of feverish intensity. Nolde must have been thinking about Munch. But Munch’s angst gets turned up to eleven, the colors skewed towards greens and yellows that give the figures an almost sickly cast. There’s something almost grotesque about the faces, each one a mask of raw emotion. But at the same time, you sense a deep empathy. He’s not just depicting a scene; he’s trying to get at something raw and human. Nolde is in conversation with painters of the past and present. This painting invites us to consider how artists transform inherited narratives into something deeply personal and emotionally resonant, so we may, too.