Vilhelms Purvītis
Painting, Visual Artist
1872 – 1945
Who was Vilhelms Purvītis?
Vilhelms Purvītis was a landscape painter and educator who founded the Latvian Academy of Art and was its rector from 1919 to 1934.
Purvītis studied painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia from 1890 to 1897, primarily under Arkhip Kuindzhi, graduating with the Grand Gold Medal. From 1898 to 1901 his paintings were exhibited in Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Lyon to great acclaim. Thereafter he made his home in Riga, traveling to Spitsbergen in Norway in 1902 to study the painting of snow.
Constantly experimenting and becoming a master of snow scenes, Purvītis began as a realist, turned to impressionism, and was later influenced by Cézanne and Munch. As the leader of the landscape painting workshop at the Latvian Academy of Art from 1921 to 1944, of visual arts in the architecture department at the University of Latvia from 1919 to 1940, and director of the Riga City Art School from 1909 to 1915, Purvītis had a host of followers and was the acknowledged leader of a whole school of Latvian painting.
Many of his works were destroyed when the Red Army took Jelgava in 1944, while many others were lost when evacuated to Bavaria.
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
- Born
- Mar 3, 1872
Zaube parish - Also known as
- Vilhelms Purvitis
- Nationality
- Latvia
- Russian Empire
- Education
- Imperial Academy of Arts
Painting
(1890 - 1897)
- Imperial Academy of Arts
- Died
- Jan 14, 1945
Bad Nauheim
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Vilhelms Purvītis." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/vilhelms_purvitis>.
Discuss this Vilhelms Purvītis biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In