HOFMANN, Ludwig von
German painter, printmaker, and illustrator. He began his studies in 1883 at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, then studied with Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922)at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe. In 1889, he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, where he came under the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Paul-Albert Besnard.
From 1894 to 1900, he travelled extensively and spent a great deal of his time at his villa in Fiesole. His appreciation of antiquity and attraction to the idea of Arcadia permeates much of his work. In 1890, he joined Die Elf, the group of artists formed at the instigation of Walter Leistikow.
After 1895, he was a regular contributor of illustrations for the Art Nouveau magazine, Pan. In 1896, he became a member of the Berlin Secession. He was also a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund. He painted and taught in Weimar from 1903 to 1908 and in Dresden from 1916 to 1918.
In his work, which also includes woodcuts for books and lithographs, Hofmann combines a traditional, academic style with Art Nouveau motifs. Using the stylistic means of contrast, he lends his pictures a coded meaning whose symbolism is nevertheless clearly recognizable.
