Ernst Ludvig Norlind was born on April 25, 1877 in the Vellinge Parish in Skane County in Southern Sweden. He was the son of the church hero Lars Christenson and Johanna Norlind as well as brother of music researcher Tobias Norlind and author Arnold Norlind. He began his education as a philosophy candidate in Lund in 1898 but transferred to studying art when he attended schools in Dachau, Germany and Paris.

After his marriage to Hanna Larsdotter in 1907 they settled at Borgeby Castle in Skane, which his wife owned. He worked primarily as an oil painter, using the landscape of Skane for his subject but also worked in charcoal and etching.

During his time at Borgeby Castle, the Norlind family was hosted by, amongst others, the artist Axel Tormeman and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, in Edvard Persson's composititon ‘Skanska Palaces and Mansions’.

He did some illustration, he did the cover for Anders Osterling’s first poetry collection and helped with getting Osterling to publish his friend Olla Hansson. Norlind is best known for his poster advertising the Baltic Exhibition in Malmo in 1914. Norlind also played violin and was a friend of folk musician Olof Andersson, which he played on lecture nights. He debuted literally with Dikter (1907) and subsequently followed a comprehensive fictional literature production.

His paintings were often dark and dull in the colors until about 1925, but at that time they became livelier and brighter in the use of colors. During this period, Norlind also became interested in adding figures to his landscape motif and he also became interested in still life painting.

Ernst Ludvig Norlind died in Borgeby, Sweden on December 16, 1952.