# Peter Philippi

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{{Short description|German portrait painter}}
thumb|200px|A Farmer Reading the News
'''Peter Philippi''' (30 March 1866, [Trier](/source/Trier) - 17 August 1945, [Rothenburg ob der Tauber](/source/Rothenburg_ob_der_Tauber)) was a German portrait and [genre](/source/Genre_art) painter. Some sources, mostly art dealerships, give his year of death as 1958.

== Biography ==
His father, also named Peter Philippi, was a book seller and [binder](/source/Bookbinder). His mother, Katharina née Theisen, was a winemaker's daughter from the [Mosel region](/source/Mosel_(wine_region)). In 1869, his father acquired a large, popular bookstore, which enabled Peter to attend the Royal [Gymnasium](/source/Gymnasium_(school)). Upon graduating, in 1883, he left home to enroll at the [Kunstakademie Düsseldorf](/source/Kunstakademie_D%C3%BCsseldorf). There is no record of any artistic training up to that time.  
thumb|left|170px|Portrait of an unidentified man
He studied there from 1884 to 1898, with a one-year interruption for military service.<ref name="P">Peter Philippi: "Autobiografische Angaben", In: ''Die kleine Stadt und ihre Menschen'', Hädecke, 1938, pp.13-15</ref> His primary instructors included [Hugo Crola](/source/Hugo_Crola), [Adolf Schill](/source/Adolf_Schill) and [Johann Peter Theodor Janssen](/source/Johann_Peter_Theodor_Janssen). Later, he was accepted into the master class of the history painter, [Eduard von Gebhardt](/source/Eduard_von_Gebhardt), who was inclined to religious subject matter, but this had no influence on him. With graduation approaching, he joined the progressive artists' association, [Malkasten](/source/Malkasten). He remained in Düsseldorf, but maintained close contact with Trier. In 1905, he married a former fellow-student, Constanze Schmitz, originally from Berlin. They had one daughter.

Seeking an "unspoiled environment", he and Constanze moved to Rothenburg ob der Tauber in 1906.<ref name="P" /> The first portfolio of his artwork was published shortly after.<ref>Ferdinand Avenarius (Ed.): ''Philippi-Mappe'', Kunstwart-Verlag Georg Callwey, Munich, 1906 (2nd edition in 1921)</ref> In 1910, he was named an extraordinary member of the Kunstakademie.

In 1923, together with {{ill|Adolph Hosse|de}} and several younger, local artists, he helped establish the Rothenburger Künstlerbund, for which the city provided a permanent exhibition space. That same year, having divorced Constanze, he married Elisabeth Pies, from Trier. In 1930, he helped create a similar artists' association there. After the [Nazi](/source/Nazi) takeover in 1933, he was admitted to the [Reich Chamber of Culture](/source/Reich_Chamber_of_Culture).<ref>Bundesarchivs Berlin, AZ: BArch, R 1 – 2000/K-157, Reichskulturkammer and R 55/96. Personnel number 1363-M.</ref>

He remained conservative in his approach, calling the [Biedermeier](/source/Biedermeier) period "our last real stylistic epoch".<ref name="P" /> His preferred subjects were elderly, small town people, in old-fashioned clothes. Many of his paintings, or portions of them, were reproduced as popular postcards. He participated in the [Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung](/source/Gro%C3%9Fe_Deutsche_Kunstausstellung) of 1937, which inspired him to publish ''The Little Town and Its People'', a collection of his works that also featured his poetry and anecdotes about his models. He was represented in a total of 48 exhibits between then and 1943.

On his seventy-fifth birthday, in 1941, he was presented with the [Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft](/source/Goethe-Medaille_f%C3%BCr_Kunst_und_Wissenschaft), and deemed to be "politically reliable".<ref>Bundesarchivs, Az: BArch, R1 – 2000/K-157; NS 5-VI/17697 und R 55/96., and a press release in the ''[Frankfurter Zeitung](/source/Frankfurter_Zeitung)'',  1 April 1941</ref> Two years later, he was honored with his own exhibition. In 1944, he was added to the "[Gottbegnadeten list](/source/Gottbegnadeten_list)" of painters who were crucial to Nazi culture.<ref>[Ernst Klee](/source/Ernst_Klee): ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945'', Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, {{ISBN|978-3-596-17153-8}}, pg.41</ref>
thumb|300px|At the Grocery Store

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Christoph Krapp: "Notizen zu Biographie und Werk des Trierer Malers Peter Philippi (1866–1945)", In: ''Neues Trierisches Jahrbuch.'' 1999, pp.&nbsp;45–64
* Hans Paffrath (Ed.): ''Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule 1819–1918'', Vol.3: ''Nabert–Zwecker.'', Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf and the Galerie Paffrath. Bruckmann, 1998, {{ISBN|3-7654-3011-0}}, pp.&nbsp;91–93
* Michael Berens: "Der andere Philippi – Lichtbilder aus dem Steipenbering", In: ''Neues Trierisches Jahrbuch.'' 1996, pp.&nbsp;40–47
* Hellmuth Möhring: "Peter Philippi (1866–1945) – Retrospektive zum 150. Geburtstag", (exhibition catalog), Reichsstadtmuseum Rothenburg, 2016

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Peter Philippi}}
* "Philippi, Peter", In:  ''Benhezit Dictionary of Artists'' Vol.10: ''Müller–Pinchetti.'' Gründ 2006, {{ISBN|2-7000-3080-X}}, pg.1326 ([https://archive.org/details/benezitdictionar10bene/page/1326/mode/1up Online])
* [http://www.artnet.com/artists/peter-philippi/ More works by Philippi] @ ArtNet

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philippi, Peter}}
Category:1866 births
Category:1945 deaths
Category:German painters
Category:German genre painters
Category:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni
Category:People from Trier
Category:Nazi culture

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