Hugo Bouvard was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1879. During a leave of absence from the Austro-Hungarian army in 1908-10, he studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and at Henrich Knirr's private school in Munich, and from 1915 to 1918 he served as a war artist, before joining the Vienna Secession in 1921. Escaping political persecution after the Austrian Anschluss (annexation by Nazi Germany), he immigrated to England in 1938 where he lived for a decade before permanently returning to Vienna in the postwar period.
Artist Hugo Bouvard was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1879. After completing his primary education at a grammar school in Vienna and a military academy in Wiener Neustadt, he joined the Austro-Hungarian Army as a lieutenant. In 1908, he took a leave of absence, during which he began studying under Rudolf Bacher at the Academy of Fine Arts; then, in 1910, he attended the private art school of German painter Heinrich Knirr. Following this, he also studied under Hans Müller in Dachau and Karlsruhe. In 1914, he was conscripted into the army and sent to the front line. From 1915, he worked as a war artist. He reported to the Austro-Hungarian War Press Headquarters and depicted scenes from the Isonzo front. He returned from the war highly decorated and, in 1921, joined the Vienna Secession, an art movement closely related to Art Nouveau, formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects. He painted many Austrian landscapes and still life pieces, but is best known for his portraits, particularly of high ranking officers during the First World War. He travelled extensively in Europe both before and after the war, visiting Italy, France, England, Scotland, Scandinavia, and Russia, and a number of works remain from his time abroad around 1925, including a view of Piccadilly Circus in London and several Venetian scenes. A striking portrait of Geoffrey Scott (1878-1929), author of 'The Architecture of Humanism' (1914) and 'The History of Taste', secretary, librarian and architect to distinguished art historian Bernard Berenson in Tuscany (and responsible for much of the rebuilding of Berenson's Florentine villa 'I Tatti') was painted by Bouvard in the Neue Sachlichkeit style in 1925; the exact circumstances of the commission are unknown. The painting is held in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) collection in London.
Following the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, more than 60 of Bouvard's paintings were confiscated by the Gestapo and he was forced to flee to escape political persecution. He immigrated to England where he remained for ten years. In 1948, he permanently returned to Vienna where he continued to work as an artist, exhibiting regularly at the Vienna Secession and the Kunstlerhaus. After his return home, he was commissioned in 1952/53 to decorate a building of the Museum of Military History in Vienna, with a fresco depicting the medieval army and transportation systems, and military vehicles from the Maximilian era. He died in Vienna in 1959. Examples of his artwork are held in several public collections, including the Royal Institute of British Architects in London and the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Museum of Military History) in Vienna.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Hugo Bouvard]
Publications related to [Hugo Bouvard] in the Ben Uri Library