Erwin Johannes Bowien (3 September 1899 – 3 December 1972) was a German painter and author.

Biography

Bowien was a born in to a family of a construction engineer from East Prussia. His mother also came from there and was descended from a family that had moved to East Prussia in the 18th century. Bowien went to school in Berlin, attended a gymnasium and studied at the "Ecole professionelle" in

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

(Switzerland). After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he studied at the

Munich Art Academy The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria ...

, the

Dresden Art Academy The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the product o ...

, and the Berlin Art Academy. He then taught himself for four years and gave lectures on art history for the Volkshochschule in Solingen.Rudi Holzberger y Erwin Bowien, ''Faszination Adelegg Fluchtpunkt im Allgäu; Erwin Bowien im Kreuzthal'', 2013 After the Nazi seizure of power, Bowien who was an opponent of party, left for the Netherlands. He lived from 1933 to 1942 as a freelance artist in

Egmond aan den Hoef Egmond aan den Hoef () is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Bergen, and lies about west of Alkmaar. Until 2001, Egmond aan den Hoef was part of the municipality of Egmond. The village was firs ...

, North Holland, in the former home of the philosopher

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...

. When

Princess Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husban ...

was born in 1938, Bowien came up with the idea of portraying children in Egmond aan den Hoef who saw the light of day in 1938. The paintings have been transferred by the municipality of Egmond to the Royal Household Archives. Bowien held exhibitions of his work in The Hague, Hoorn, Alkmaar and Schoorl. He made his name there as a painter and pastel draftsman of landscapes, sea and dune views. After the German occupation of the Netherlands, Bowien was arrested and jailed for three days. He received information from Germany that his colleagues were willing to hide him. He took advantage of that offer and ended up in a small village in Bavaria where he remained unnoticed by the authorities until the end of the war. After the Second World War he visited Norway, Switzerland, among others. Exhibitions of his work have been organized in many major cities in Germany, but also in Copenhagen and Paris, and his work can be seen in several museums. Bowien died December 3, 1972, in the house in Weil am Rhein. On October 20, 1976, the Erwin Bowien eV Friendship Association was founded in the in Solingen.Bettina Heinen-Ayech and Ulrike Friedrichs: . Editor: Bettina Heinen-Ayech. 1st edition. U-Form-Verlag Solingen, Solingen 1999

References

External links

Erwin Bowien website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowien, Erwin 1899 births 1972 deaths 20th-century German painters German male painters 20th-century German poets German male poets German memoirists Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands 20th-century German male artists