Eduard Bargheer

Eduard Bargheer was born in Hamburg-Finkenwerder in 1901, the son of a teacher. After training as a drawing teacher at the Hamburg School of Arts and Crafts - today's Academy of Fine Arts - he decided in favour of fine art in 1924. He soon had his first successful exhibitions. He made friends with fellow artists such as the painter Gretchen Wohlwill and with art historians such as art gallery director Gustav Pauli, the university professor Erwin Panofsky and his doctoral student Ludwig Heydenreich. The work of Eduard Bargheer represents Hamburg's articles on modernist painting. Bargheer's life circumstances, his youth in Finkenwerder, his early travels and his encounters with the South formed the pool of experiences from which he drew again and again as a painter until he retreated to Italy to escape the National Socialists. Later, his regular stays on Ischia, and most recently his travels to Africa, had a particular influence on the artist's work. Volker Plagemann describes Bargheer's life and artistic journey, starting in Hamburg and leading back to Hamburg, and describes his biography as part of Hamburg's more recent art history.