Vilhelms PURVITIS  1872 — 1945

Вільгельм ПУРВІТІС • Вильгелм ПУРВИТИС

Vilhelms Purvitis is a Latvian artist, founder of the Latvian Art Academy and its first rector; he was the director of the Riga City Museum of Art. He was born near Riga in 1872. Studied at St. Petersburg Art Academy in 1890-1895 in the studio of A.Kuindzhi. Visited Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Dusseldorf in 1898. The artist worked in Riga and Tallinn. In 1917-1918 he lived in Norway. He was a member of the art circle “Rukis” in 1892-1897, “Mir Iskusstva” in 1898-1903, “Kunstverein” in 1899-1911. The artist is known for his landscapes and especially scenes of Spring and Winter. As the artist was part of “bourgeois Latvia” in pre war times escaping Soviet prosecution he moved to Germany at the end of the World War II. Purvitis died in Bad Nauheim, Germany in 1945. His remains were moved to Riga in 1994.

Works

Birch trees by a river