Max Peiffer Watenphul
After first studying medicine, then law, Max Peiffer Watenphul finally earned his doctorate in law in 1918 with a thesis on canon law. The artist met Paul Klee in Munich and a year later went to Weimar to the Bauhaus, where he met Gropius, Itten, Feininger and Kandinsky. In 1924 Max Peiffer Watenphul comes to Salzburg for the first time and works there in the field of enamel painting in the workshop of Maria Cyrenius. The artist is so enthusiastic about the city that he returns there again and again until the mid-1960s.
In 1927 Max Peiffer Watenphul is called to Essen, where he takes on a teaching position at the Folkwang School until 1931. In 1931 the artist receives the Rome Prize and then spends a few months at the German Academy Villa Massimo in Italy.Max Peiffer Watenphul decides in 1933 to move to Italy altogether, where he meets German painters such as Gilles, Levy and Purrmann on Ischia. He returned to Krefeld eight years later to work at the textile school. From 1943 Max Peiffer Watenphul continues teaching at the School of Applied Arts in Salzburg. The artist fled to Venice in 1946 and remained in this city until 1956, where he created a number of his well-known cityscapes.