Henri Ernst Pfeiffer was born in 1907 in Kassel (Germany). He comes from a family that has a dozen painters in his family tree. He studied anatomical drawing at the sculptor Carl Menser at the University of Bonn, then joined the Weimar Bauhaus at the age of 17 where he becomes a student of Paul Klee. He created many abstract works with a renewed vision of the use and perception of colors. Very young, he...

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  Biography of Henri Ernst Pfeiffer

  Henri Ernst Pfeiffer was born in 1907 in Kassel (Germany). He comes from a family that has a dozen painters in his family tree. He studied anatomical drawing at the sculptor Carl Menser at the University of Bonn, then joined the Weimar Bauhaus at the age of 17 where he becomes a student of Paul Klee. He created many abstract works with a renewed vision of the use and perception of colors. Very young, he studied intensively the chemistry of pigments with his uncle. In 1933 when the Bauhaus was forbidden he was arrested by the Gestapo but he succeeded to be released with the help of his parents. He then abandonned painting but still got passionate with color becoming a famous ophtalmologist specialized in the perception of colors. He wrote a book about the subject in the 1950’s (« L'Harmonie des couleurs » - The Harmony of Colors, Ed. Dunot, 1956). In 1952, Henri Pfeiffer is naturalized French and receives a search order by France. This early genius artist, who produced an avant-garde painting work with a fascinating research on colors, is a reel discovery. His history and his journey from art to science with the same obssession of color perception understanding is fascinating and very consistent with the ethical and philosophical Bauhaus principles which never separated art from science and industy.
  From 1960 to 1985, Henri Pfeiffer taught in Paris, in particular at the School of Applied Arts and various faculties; his work is regularly exhibited in France and around the world.
  In 1994, Henri Ernst Pfeiffer died at his home in Maisons-Laffitte at the age of 87.
  

  

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