Ludwig von Hofmann spent his study years in Dresden until 1886, and thereafter in Karlsruhe, Munich, and Paris, where he worked at the Académie Julian. There, the works of Puvis de Chavannes and Besnard in particular made a lasting impression on the young artist. In 1890, Hofmann moved to Berlin and joined – along with Liebermann, Skarbina, Klinger, and others – the association of The Eleven and also, later, the Secession. His intensive friendship with Gerhard Hauptmann began during these years. Yet it did not keep him there long; rather, an encounter with Hans von Marées (1837-1887) in Munich had a much greater effect on the direction of his art.
With his encouragement, Hofmann moved to Italy in 1894, and spent most of his time thereafter working in Rome. His classical style took shape here at the latest, characterised by youthful, undressed bodies in an idyllically archaising landscape. The almost lyrical atmosphere of his works was enabled through their luminous colouration in muted pastel shades, which was deeply discussed among his contemporaries already. Thomas Mann ranked among his most ardent admirers.
In 1903, Ludwig von Hofmann was called to the Grand Ducal Art School in Weimar, where he soon assumed great influence over the artistic development of that period. He nevertheless accepted, in 1916, an invitation to teach as a professor at the Art Academy in Dresden, where he had spent his first study years. He left this institution again in 1931 and moved into the Riverside Palace in Pillnitz, where he died shortly after the end of the Second World War.
The dating of this pastel is based upon a handwritten letter, dated December 16, 1915, from Hofmann to the future buyer, who wished to acquire the work from the artist’s exhibition in the Sächsische Kunstsammlungen at Erfurt. Hofmann himself lived in that city until May 1916, having volunteered for military service only to be installed, due to his age, as an overseer at the prison camp in Erfurt.