Hugo Friedrich Hartmann studied at the Dresden Academy of Art from 1890 to 1896 and was a master student of Gotthardt Kuehl. In 1898 he moved into a studio in the St Lukas artists’ home in Bardowick. His works such as “Treidelpferde” and “Pflügender Bauer” attracted attention at the Berlin Secession in 1902. Hartmann was a central part of the artists’ colony in Bardowick and led the North German artists’ group Die Heidjer. He cultivated friendships with artists such as Ernst Müller-Scheeßel and Otto Modersohn. He travelled to Paris, Antwerp, Holland, Italy and Denmark. Around 1900 he painted the Lüneburg Ratskeller and in 1939 two frieze paintings in the Lüneburg railway station. In 1909 he illustrated the Lower Saxony school primer. In Bardowick, he devoted himself to landscape and animal painting. Hartmann’s estate is owned by the family in Lüneburg.