Brief Biography-Vilhelms Purvītis was born in Jaunpils, or Zaube, as it is named today. His drawing teacher in Klastici, Belarus, Karl Schmid, had him go to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Art after seeing his talents. He travelled to Paris, but the art did not impress him, so he went to Munich, where he entered his works in exhibitions by Sergey Diaghilev. He later taught art in Riga as director of Riga Art School and, in 1917, held exhibitions in Oslo, Norway. He became the first rector of the Latvian Academy of Art in 1919. By this time, he was recognised as one of the foremost landscape artists of Latvia and held several esteemed posts. Unfortunately, his workshop got demolished during the war in 1944, and he bolted to Danzig with his wife and daughter; through ill health, he died in Bad Nauheim, Germany, in 1945. Many of his paintings got lost during the war. He had many honours posthumously bestowed upon him.