Nell Walden

Nelly Anna Charlotta Walden (née Roslund; 29 December 1887 – 21 October 1975) was a Swedish painter, art collector, and writer. A key figure in the activities of Berlin-based avant-garde magazine Der Sturm, Walden stayed with her grandparents in Trelleborg, where she attended the Trelleborg Elementarskola för Flickor. She graduated in 1904 and entered a school in Lund to study music. She received language lessons in Lübeck during the summer of 1907, and in 1908, she graduated with a degree in organ in Växjö. The following year, she moved to Berlin with her sister, to study music. In 1910, Walden became engaged to Folke Bensow, an architect. After a year, the couple called off their engagement.

Married life and artistic career In 1911, Walden met German writer, musician, and publisher Herwarth Walden (born Georg Lewin) in Landskrona. They married in London on 23 November 1912. Walden became an imperative figure of Der Sturm (The Storm), 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. 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, Walden ran the art gallery in Berlin, which was highly influential at the time. The gallery was a leading exhibition forum for avant-garde movements such as Expressionism, Futurism, Cubism, and Constructivism in Germany during the 1910s and 1920s. In 1913, the couple travelled to several European cities to meet modern artists and collect works for the exhibition Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon, which opened under the auspices of Der Sturm in September of the same year. The exhibition featured around 360 works of art of nearly 80 artists including, Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Umberto Boccioni, Marc Chagall, Jacoba van Heemskerck, and Paul Klee. Between 1912 and 1923, she was involved in the production of several exhibitions, and the establishment and management of international contacts.

During World War I, Walden worked as a translator and journalist, contributing articles in Swedish newspapers on the German cultural scene. In 1916, Walden began her formal study of art as a student of the Der Sturm art school in Berlin.

In 1924, Walden and her husband divorced, following which she parted ways with Der Sturm.

Later years After World War II, Walden focused on preserving the legacy of Der Sturm and her first husband Herwarth Walden, publishing two memoirs: Der Sturm. Ein Erinneringsbuch an Herwarth Walden und die Künstler aus dem Sturmkreis (1954) and Herwarth Walden. Ein Lebensbild (1963).

Walden was recognised for her contributions to art. She was honoured with the Order of Vasa in 1967 and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968. She was also awarded a silver medal from the Accademia Internazionale Tommaso Campanella in 1970.

Walden died in Bern, Switzerland, on 21 October 1975.