1896–1910 1911–1913 1914–1918 1919–1926 1927–1930 1931–1936 1937–1940 1941–1943 1943–1946 1946–1957 1958–1969 1970–1976

1937–1940

Industrial Landscape in Autumn
Industrial Landscape in Autumn, 1937

The political situation in Germany became palpably more oppressive in 1937, and a mailman warned the artist’s stepfather that the artist’s mail was being read. Peiffer Watenphul then sought in vain to emigrate to England and France. Finally, in the autumn of 1937, he succeeded in going to Italy, where his sister Grace had married and where his brother-in-law could arrange for a residence permit.

Ischia_Spiaggio degli Inglesi
Ischia, Spiaggio degli Inglesi, 1940

In the course of the “Degenerate Art” campaign, Max Peiffer Watenphul’s paintings were removed from all major German museums, including those in the: Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne; and the Kunsthalle, Mannheim. The flower painting from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin went into the “Degenerate Art” exhibition in Munich. This meant the end of any opportunity for the artist to exhibit in Germany.

Peiffer Watenphul went to Ischia in December of 1937, to the beautiful, then nearly unknown island off of Naples, which he had known and loved since 1936. Many German painters came there over time, including Werner Gilles, Rudolf Levy, and Eduard Bargheer, as did the composer Gottfried von Einem. It was a happy time for Peiffer Watenphul, and he created many paintings. Now and then he would interrupt his stay on Ischia with short trips to Cefalù, or would go to Latina, where his sister Grace lived at the time, where his painting was inspired by the medieval sites on the hinterlands of the pontifical plains, Ninfa, Sermoneta, and Norma. His stepfather’s death in 1940 was a painful disruption.