Franz Nölken

On the advice of Alfred Lichtwark, the Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, he took classes from Arthur Siebelist, who eschewed the Academic approach and took his students to paint en plein aire.

[1] He undertook a study trip to his birthplace, near Soest, in 1905, where he met the businessman, Ernst Rump, a supporter of the arts who would later become his patron.

Meanwhile, in 1909, he made another trip to Paris, where he studied with Henri Matisse at his short-lived Académie.

The arrangement was brief, as Rée apparently fell in love with Nölken and her affections were not returned.

He also made friends with the composer, Max Reger (Nölken was an excellent amateur pianist),[1] and painted numerous portraits of him, one of which was purchased by one of Nölken's patrons, Oskar Troplowitz, to hang in his billiard room.