Perls, Hugo

Hugo Perls was born in Rybnik in Upper Silesia (then Germany, now in Poland) on May 24, 1886. He studied law, philosophy, and art history at the Universities of Freiburg and Berlin. In 1910 Hugo and his wife Käthe Perls had their first child, Frank. Two years later they had another son, Klaus. After Hugo Perls completed his studies, he joined the German civil service, where he worked for a time for the Ministry of the Interior before serving in the German Foreign Office ( Auswärtiges Amt ) in World War I.

In 1914 Perls began collecting artwork, and by 1921 was working as an art dealer, establishing the Käte Perls Gallerie in Berlin and collecting and selling the works of many well-known artists, especially impressionists. Among the works of artists included in his collection were pieces by Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne, among others. In 1913 Munch had painted a portrait of Hugo and Käte Perls.

...