✿ Leo PUTZ (1869-1940) ✿

 Leo PUTZ (b Merano, 18 June 1869; d Merano, 21 July 1940). German painter. From 1886 to 1889 he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Munich. He was at the Academie Julian in Paris between 1891 and 1892 where his teachers were William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Benjamin Constant. Although Bouguereau was a confirmed opponent of Impressionism, Putz was greatly interested in the movement, in particular the early works of Manet and Renoir.
 Symbolist art, as represented by the work of Franz von Stuck and Franz Xaver Habermann, became an influence on his work when he returned to Munich. In 1899 Putz and Fritz Erler were involved in the foundation of the artistic group DIE SCHOLLE.

He was also a member of the Secessions in Berlin, Vienna and Munich. As well as landscapes he painted a number of nudes, which are characterized by the high contrast of the colouring and the use of shimmering sunlight, for example Picnic I (1904; Munich, Neue Pin.) and The Bajadere (1903; Munich, Lenbachhaus). He worked in South America between 1928 and 1933; at this time his work seemed Expressionistic, reminiscent of the art of Die Brucke. In 1931 he became a professor at the Academia de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro. After returning to Germany he was condemned by the cultural politics of the Nazis and left Munich in 1936 for Merano