Bargheer, Eduard

Eduard Bargheer was an Expressionist painter and printmaker born in Hamburg. He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg-Lerchenfeld and the Gerda Koppel Art School before receiving a scholarship to travel to Italy in 1925. His early style was characterized by colorful cityscapes strongly influenced by Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and the Flemish Expressionists. From the 1920s onwards, Bargheer developed an individual and innovative style that combined naturalism and abstraction. His formal language was characterized by soft, rounded contours that sketched landscapes and people. This style also influenced the artist group "Hamburger Sezession" (Hamburg Secession), which he joined in 1929.
 

Bargheer visited many European cities and finally moved to the Italian island of Ischia after exploring it in 1935. The warm pastel tones of this new environment were also reflected in his new works. In the 1950s, he returned to Hamburg. A few years later, the Kestner Society exhibited his first comprehensive retrospective there. In 1957, he became a guest lecturer at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and in 1963 a professor at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. His successes include not only these important teaching activities, but also his repeated participation in the documenta in Kassel.
 

The artist died in 1979 at his home in Hamburg Blankenese. As an important artist of Expressionism, Bargheer left behind a very special legacy with his printmaking work. Part of his complete works has been on display at the Eduard Bargheer Museum in Hamburg's Jenischpark since 2017. Many of his works are now in numerous international museums, including the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, the National Gallery in Berlin, the City Art Museum in St. Louis, and several Vatican museums.