Otto Pippel

Otto Pippel is one of the most important Impressionists in southern Germany. The son of German parents who emigrated to Lódz in Russia, Pippel entered the Strasbourg School of Arts and Crafts in 1896 with the intention of becoming an interior designer and decorative painter. His artistic training was interrupted by four years of service in the Russian army. He then began studying at the academy in Karlsruhe. From 1907-08 he studied at the Dresden Academy under Gotthard Kuehl, who was influenced by Impressionism.

In 1909, Planegg near Munich became his permanent residence, where he lived and worked until his death. On a trip to Paris in the same year, he was influenced by the French Impressionists to further develop the effect of light and colour in his painting. In 1912, Otto Pippel joined the “Luitpold Group” and exhibited a small winter landscape for the first time in Munich’s Glaspalast. From 1915, he exhibited regularly at the Brakl Gallery in Munich, making him one of the most sought-after Impressionists in southern Germany in the years that followed.