Hans Purrmann

The painter, graphic artist, art writer and collector Hans Purrmann was born in Speyer in 1880 and became known for his painterly still lifes, nude studies, portraits and landscape paintings of the south.

During his training at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Karlsruhe and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich under Franz von Stuck, Purrmann met artists such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Albert Weisgerber. In 1905, Purrmann spent six months in Berlin. There he was accepted into the Berlin Secession under Max Liebermann and was represented by the renowned gallery owner Paul Cassirer. Shortly afterwards, Purrmann moved to Paris until the outbreak of the First World War, where he became a member of the Café du Dôme circle of artists. Friendships with André Derain and especially Henri Matisse followed. Despite his intensive involvement with Fauvism, Expressionism and Cubism, which inspired Purrmann to create compositions and nature studies in pure, vibrant colors, Purrmann's works always remained figurative.

From 1916, Purrmann regularly took part in the "Freie Secession" and became a member of the Prussian Academy of Art in 1919. Stays at Lake Constance, in Florence and in Ticino followed. In 1955 Purrmann took part in the first documenta in Kassel. Purrmann died in Basel in 1966.