Philipp Bauknecht, a German born in Barcelona, originally wanted to become a carpenter. But after the final exam he decided to enrol at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Stuttgart. His teacher was the renowned Art Nouveau artist Bernhard Pankok. Bauknecht contracted tuberculosis and in 1910, went to Davos, hoping to be cured. There he met other artists, such as Cuno Amiet and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who acquired two of Bauknecht's paintings and helped him to participate in exhibitions in Germany. Like Kirchner, Bauknecht moved to a small house in the mountains and painted scenes from the working life of the peasants. The friendship between Kirchner and Bauknecht, who was a teetotaller, was broken off because of Kirchner's drug and alcohol abuse, but Kirchner still supported him. Bauknecht married a rich Dutch woman, who bought a beautiful house at Lake Davos. In 1933, Bauknecht died of stomach cancer. During the Third Reich, many of his works were destroyed in Germany as "degenerate art". His wife returned to the Netherlands with their son and Bauknecht's works, which she put into storage. In the 1960s, they came to light again.
