Nils Dardel föddes i Södermanland 1888. Vid 20 års ålder började han studera vid Konstakademin i Stockholm i två år. Därefter var han huvudsakligen verksam i Paris. Han var elev till den franska konstnären Henri Matisse, liksom sina svenska kollegor Isaac Grünewald, Sigrid Hjertén och Einar Jolin. Dardel debuterade med naivistiska verk, men övergick i slutet av 1910-talet till motiv med fantasi- eller drömkaraktär. Dardels kubistiska experiment övergick till pointillism omkring 1912, och han började fylla dukens yta med prickar och fläckar.
Dardel var bland annat intresserad av orientalisk konst. Under sin vistelse i Japan 1917–1918 influerades hans konst av japanska träsnitt. Klara färger och en linjär stil ersatte hans tidigare färgade teknik.
Nils Dardel reste mycket och levde ett nomadliv. Många av hans porträtt visar olika människor som han mötte på sina resor. I sina verk behandlar Dardel ofta det privata livet. Han visar moderna, självständiga människor som ständigt återskapar sina identiteter. Dardel dog 1943 i New York, dit han anlände under andra världskriget.
Nils Dardel was born in Södermanland in 1888. At the age of 20, he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm for two years. Thereafter he was mainly active in Paris. He was a pupil of the French artist Henri Matisse as well as his Swedish colleagues Isaac Grünewald, Sigrid Hjertén and Einar Jolin. Dardel made his debut with works that can be attributed to naïvism, but by the end of the 1910s, he had moved on to motifs of a fantasy or dreamlike nature. Dardel's cubist experiments turned to pointillism around 1912, and he began to fill the surface of the canvas with dots and spots.
Dardel's interests included oriental art. During his stay in Japan in 1917-1918, his art was influenced by Japanese woodcuts. Bright colours and a linear style replaced his earlier coloured technique.
Nils Dardel travelled extensively and lived a nomadic life. Many of his portraits show different people he met on his travels. In his works Dardel often deals with private life. He shows modern, independent people who are constantly recreating their own identities. Dardel died in 1943 in New York, where he came during the Second World War.