Identity:

Hugo von Habermann was a genre and history painter and portraitist.

Life:

Von Habermann studied in Munich at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (he would later teach there) and with the history painter Karl Theodor von Piloty. During the 1880s, he exhibited with success in Munich, Berlin and at the Paris Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900 as a result of which he was appointed to the French Légion d'honneur.

In 1892 he became a member of the Munich Secession, an artists' exhibition society founded in opposition to the selection policies of the Münchner Künstlergenossenschaft, the established professional body for artists in Bavaria. He became its president in 1904.

He was also a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. Later, he taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich.

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionaire critique et documentaire des peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris, 1960; Makela, Maria, 'Secession 1. Munich', The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, http://www.groveart.com (accessed June 2004).