Biography

Leo Putz was a German painter best known for his plein-air portraits, landscapes, and figural paintings of nudes painted in a colorfully Impressionist style. The son of the mayor of Merano—an influential town in the autonomous region of South Tyrol—his study began at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1885, where he later became a member of the Munich Secession in 1897. In 1929, Putz traveled to Brazil, where his work took on a decisively looser and more vibrantly colored style, and he became increasingly interested in capturing the fleeting conditions of outdoor sunlight. Among his best-known works are The Bathers and The Rowingboat, which both depict nude young women frolicking around a lake in bright, sunny conditions. Following his return to Germany in 1933, his staunch opposition to the Nazi party caused his work to be labeled as "degenerate," forcing him to flee back to his homeland of South Tyrol. Born on June 18, 1869, in Merano, South Tyrol, Putz died on July 21, 1940, in the city of his birth.