Karl Hofer

1878

Hofer is born in Karlsruhe. Four weeks after his birth, his father, the military musician Karl Friedrich Hofer, dies of a lung disease.

1879

As his mother Ottilie (sister of the sculptor Theodor Hengst and the glass painter Max Hengst)^{http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Hofer#cite_note-0} has to earn a living, Karl is placed with two great aunts.

1884–1892

Accommodation in an orphanage.

1892

Begins a commercial apprenticeship in a bookshop. First attempts at drawing in his spare time.

1896

The artist joins Robert Poetzelberger's drawing class at the Karlsruhe Academy.

1899

After the appointment of Hans Thomas, Hofer becomes his pupil. First stay in Paris.

1900

Second stay in Paris and acquaintance with Julius Meier-Graefe.

1901

Master student with Thoma.

1902

Master student with Leopold v. Kalckreuth at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. Friendship with the painter Hermann Haller.

1903

Marriage to Mathilde (called Thilde) Scheinberger in Vienna. Five-year contract with Theodor Reinhart, which enables him to move to Rome.

1904

Birth of son Karl (called Carlino). Acquaintance with Paul Klee in Bern.

1905

Birth of son Titus, who dies three months later.

1906

First solo exhibition, initiated by Harry Graf Kessler in Weimar.

1907

First contact with Marées' frescoes in Naples.

1908

Third stay in Paris. Since then new signature: CH.

1909

First solo exhibition at the Fritz Gurlitt Gallery in Berlin, founding member of the association Neue Künstlervereinigung München.

1910

First trip to India.

1911

Hofer meets the sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck and remains friends with him until his death. Second trip to India.

1914

Hofer spends the summer in the French seaside resort of Ambleteuse. After the outbreak of the First World War, he is interned in Brittany.

1917

The artist is released to Zurich.

1918

With his friend Haller, Hofer discovers his love for landscape painting in Ticino.

1919

Move to Berlin.

1920

Hofer receives a call to teach at the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst (United State Schools for Fine and Applied Arts), which is followed a year later by a call to become a professor.

1923

Member of the Prussian Academy of Art.

1927

Member of the Baden Secession.

1934

Dismissal as university lecturer and ban on working and exhibiting by the National Socialists.

1937

Hofer was represented with 8 works in the exhibition "Degenerate Art" in Munich.

1938

Divorce from Mathilde and Karl Hofer, expulsion from the Prussian Academy and professional ban, marriage to Liesel Schmidt. Removal of 313 of Hofer's works from public collections in Germany.

1942

November 24th, Death of Mathilde Hofer in Auschwitz concentration camp.

1943

Bombing and complete destruction of his studio in Berlin.

1945

Reconstruction of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, Director since 1949.

1947

His son Carlino is killed by two burglars in a shoe shop while trying to catch them.

1948

Hofer receives honorary doctorate from Berlin's Humboldt University.

1950

first president of the re-founded German Artists' Union.

1952

Order Pour le mérite for Science and the Arts. The autobiographical illustrated book "Aus Leben und Kunst" is published.

1953

Grand Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. His autobiography "Memoirs of a Painter" is published.

1955

Outbreak of the public dispute between Hofer and Grohmann over figuration and abstraction. The controversy is the reason for Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Willi Baumeister and Fritz Winter to leave the Künstlerbund. Hofer dies on 3 April as a result of a stroke. Impressed in his art first by Thoma and the classical formal ideal of Böcklin, and in Paris by Cézanne and Gauguin, Karl Hofer became one of the leading masters of Expressionism without abandoning his classical stance.