LUDWIG VON HOFMANN (1861-1945)

DEUTSCHE KUNST AUSSTELLUNG DER BERLINER SECESSION. 1899.

28x18¾ inches, 71x47½ cm. Star Printing Office, Berlin.
Condition A-: minor repaired tears at edges; minor creases and abrasions in margins and image.

Born into an aristocratic family, Hofmann studied art in Dresden, Karlsruhe and then in Paris at the Academie Julian. By 1891, he was back in Berlin where he was part of the city's thriving avant-garde artistic community, and was a frequent contributor to Pan. In 1898, Max Lieberman and Walter Leistikow founded the Berlin Secession. This extremely rare poster might be the first ever to advertise a Secession exhibition in Berlin. It is a fine Jugendstil image (reflecting the influence of Albert Besnard) with a young woman surrounded by nature. For Hofmann, who designed another poster for an art exhibition in 1893, this image was revolutionary and reflected the great artistic strides he had taken in the last decade of the 19th century. DFP-III 1314.