He was born in
Darmstadt. His father was the Prussian statesman
Karl von Hofmann, who served as
Minister-president of the
Grand Duchy of Hesse from 1872 to 1876 and was briefly Trade Minister in the cabinet of
Otto von Bismarck. Ludwig began his studies in 1883 at the
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, then studied with
Ferdinand Keller at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe. In 1889, he attended the
Académie Julian in Paris, where he came under the influence of
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and
Paul-Albert Besnard. After 1890, he was a freelance painter in Berlin. From 1894 to 1900, he travelled extensively and spent a great deal of his time at his villa in
Fiesole. His appreciation of antiquity and attraction to the idea of
Arcadia permeates much of his work. After 1895, he was a regular contributor of illustrations for the Art Nouveau magazine
Pan. In 1896, he became a member of the
Berlin Secession and he was married in 1899. He was also a member of the
Deutscher Künstlerbund In 1903, he was appointed a professor at the
Weimar Saxon Grand Ducal Art School, where he became a member of the
avant-garde literary and artistic group centered around
Harry Graf Kessler.
Jean Arp and
Ivo Hauptmann were among his students. In 1916, he was named a professor at the academy in
Dresden, where he remained until 1931. He also provided illustrations for a new translation of the
Odyssey by
Leopold Ziegler and works by
Gerhart Hauptmann (Ivo's father). His overall production slackened in the 1930s and, in 1937, some of his works were labeled as "
degenerate art". He retired to
Pillnitz, near Dresden, where he died in 1945. His remaining works were almost confiscated by the Russians after the war, but his widow managed to save them. ==Selected paintings==