Franz Deutmann
Franz Wilhelm Maria Deutmann (born 27 March 1867, Zwolle – died 18 July 1915, Blaricum) was a Dutch painter and photographer. He was a member of Arti et Amicitiae and is considered to be part of the Laren School, an offshoot of the Hague School, which is an independent part of the international movement of impressionism. Biography. His father was Franz Wilhelm Heinrich Deutmann (1840–1906), a well known photographer. He studied painting with Jan Derk Huibers, a genre artist. After a brief stay in Germany in 1884, he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) from 1884  to 1887. During his studies at the academy he was a student of Prof. Charles Verlat. In 1891, due to financial difficulties, he returned to Amsterdam and took a position in his father's photography studio. By 1896, he had established himself as an artist and opened his own studio. Many of his works from this period have a sad feeling to them, and it is possible that he was suffering from depression. In 1892 he moved to the artists' colony in Laren. Plein air painting in the company of his fellow artists seems to have cheered him up. His  portraits and figures were more colorful and lightly rendered, although his interiors still had a touch of melancholy. After a few years his depression returned and he stayed in his studio, doing still lifes of flowers. His work was not as successful as most of his associates in the Laren School. After 1903, he went back to Amsterdam, but stayed there for only one year. Then he retired to Blaricum and lived in a house named "Heide-Weide" (Heide Meadows), which was later occupied by several other well-known artists and writers. After a long illness he died there in  1915, aged only forty-eight. Franz Deutmann was a member of Arti et Amicitiae and the . His brother, , was also a photographer; well known for his portraits of the Royal Family.