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Vilhelms Purvītis

Vilhelms Purvītis
Vilhelms Purvitis.jpg
Born (1872-03-03)3 March 1872
Zaube, Flag of Russia.svg Russian Empire. Now  Latvia
Died 14 January 1945(1945-01-14) (aged 72)
Bad Nauheim, Flag of the German Reich (1935–1945).svg Third Reich. Now  Germany
Nationality Latvian
Known for Painting
Movement Impressionism

Vilhelms Purvītis (3 March 1872 in Zaube, Latvia – 14 January 1945 in Bad Nauheim, Germany) was a landscape painter and educator who founded the Latvian Academy of Art and was its rector from 1919 to 1934.

Vilhems Purvītis was born in Livonian Governorate, Zaube parish in a family of a miller. He studied in a local parish school until his family moved to Vitebsk Governorate. Until 1888 Purvītis studied in a municipal school in Drissa (Today: Belarus). It was here where his drawing skills were noticed for the first time. When his family returned to Vidzeme Purvītis worked in his fathers mill in Smiltene parish for a two years.

In 1890 Purvītis started studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia from 1890 to 1897, primarily under Arkhip Kuindzhi, graduating with the Grand Gold Medal. While in academy he studied paintings of old Dutch masters and became close friend with two other Latvian painters- Janis Rozentāls and Johan Valter. In 1898 he together with Janis Rozentāls and Johan Valter took a study trip across Europe and his paintings were exhibited in Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Lyon to great acclaim. In 1899 he returned to Riga and started to give private lessons in painting. In 1902 he traveled to Spitzbergen in Norway to study the painting of snow. After the Revolution of 1905 Purvītis traveled to Tallinn where he worked as a drawing teacher in a local Realschule. In 1909 Purvītis returned to Riga and became director of a Riga city art school.


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