Lot 245 Dα

Hugo Vogel studied at the Düsseldorf academy and was a member of the "Malkasten" artists' society until 1886. After residing for a time in Italy, he later moved to Berlin and there took over a professorship at the Berlin Academy in 1887. He later lost this position in the wake of the so-called "Munch Affair". Alongside paintings, Vogel also created large, historical frescoes, including works for the town halls of Berlin and Hamburg and for the guildhall of his hometown of Magdeburg.
During WWI Hugo Vogel accompanied Field Marshall Hindenburg from 1915 - 1917 as his portraitist on the front line. The present work is the second version of the motif of Hindenburg and Ludendorff at the card table. The prime version was painted in the same year but is kept in the städtisches Museum in Hannover. Vogel wrote about the making of these portraits in "Als ich Hindenburg malte", published in 1926.