Hofmann, Ludwig von 1861 Darmstadt - 1945 Pillnitz Summer in Arcadia. Signed with monogram and dated bottom left: L.v.H. 19(?)6. Oil on canvas. 89 x 67cm. Framed. Ludwig von Hofmann was appointed to the "Großherzogliche Kunstschule" in Weimar in October 1903. Together with Herny van de Velde the new art project "Neue Weimar" was to be launched. Up to 1916 he spent important study- and creative years in the cultural centre, where he met several other artists, writers and musicians. During this period he painted one of his most important ensembles, a six-piece idyllic arcadian mural cycle, which appeared in the museum hall created together with van de Velde onh the "Dritten Deutschen Kunstgewerbeausstellung" in 1906. The painting at hand can be classified stylistically to the years 1905/06, in which the mural as well as a comparable painting "summer"(1905) was created. These works "deploys a symbolistic, aesthetic effect and renders an utopian vision of a, to our current civilization, alternative world. Likewise his rythmical, unreal paintings ignites the minds time and again causing a stir due to the light colouring inspired in France. (..) (Hofmann) in 1900 (...) took up an artistically important intermediary role between Judendstil, Stilkunst and expressionism." Literature: Ex.-Cat. Darmstadt 2002, Ludwig von Hofmann 1861-1945. Arkadische Utopien in der Moderne, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt 2006, Citation from the covertext.