(1868 - 1940) German architect, designer and applied-arts artist
Peter BEHRENS was born in Hamburg, Germany. He studied painting
and architecture in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe. Inspired
by the emerging Art Nouveau style, he first worked as a painter,
illustrator and book-binder as he frequented the bohemian
circles and took part to the Munich Secession. In 1899, he
became member of the artist colony created in Darmstadt. He
built there his own house and designed all decorative elements
inside (furniture, paintings, pottery, tableware). At this stage
of his life, he left the artistic circles of Munich: his
artistic desires moved away from the exuberance of Jugendstil
and he began to produce more sober and austere designs. During
this period, Behrens was attracted by various artistic
enterprises particularly design in applied arts, such as
ceramics and was interested in the reform of life-styles and
taste-making that was growing in the artistic spheres all over
Europe. Behrens developed an elegant geomet