Oil on board 32.5 x 38.5cm (12 3/4 x 15 1/4in.) Provenance: with Gallery Munsteberg, Basel Paul Basilius Barth was born in Basel, 1881. In 1898, Barth started an apprenticeship as a Dekorationsmalerei working on murals and stage designs. From 1902 until 1904, Barth studied in Munich at the Kunstakademie and at the painting school run by Heinrich Knirr. Other students who studied under Knirr included Paul Klee and Rudolf Levy. Barth then moved to work in Italy travelling to Florence and Rome. By 1906, he had moved to Paris and entered the Académie Julian where artists such as Léon Bakst, Maurice Denis and Andre Derain also studied. He was to become great friends with Maurice Denis. He became acquainted with Henri Matisse at the Académie Humbert. Barth spent the last years of his life back in Switzerland and had a studio in Güttingen on Lake Constance . Paul Basilius Barth died in 1955 in Riehen.