The German painter and commercial artist HANS KOHL was born in 1897 in Mainz and died in 1990 near Heppenheim. He studied from 1915 to 1923 at the academy in Munich with Professors Doerner, Jank and Exner, and he was master pupil with Peter von Halm. Along with graphics, his main area was portraiture and figurative painting. In 1924 he painted his well-known Portrait of Pope Pius XI. Kohl's figure compositions in classically Arcadian landscapes are often occupied with religious or mythological content. He modelled himself after the painter Hans von Marees who he much admired. Hans Kohl was a member of the Mainz Association of Artists and the Hessian Artist Trust, as well as from 1933 a member of the Frankfurt Kunstlergemeinschaft. He exhibited widely.