Herman Braun-Vega

His father, Francisco Braun Weisbrod, was Jewish born in 1902 under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the city of Stuhlweissenberg (Székesfehérvár), currently in Hungarian territory. His mother, Armida Vega Noriega, was born in Iquitos, capital of the Peruvian Amazon.[5]

Herman Braun-Vega was born in Lima. His older brother, Max (painter Fernando Vega), was born in February 1932. After Herman, three other siblings were born : Berti (architect and urban planner), Álex (designer) and Aurora (painter and draftsman).[5]

His father bought art reproductions in Paris and had them framed in Peru. As a result, his brother Max was the first to want to become a painter. Herman wanted to do the same as his brother.

In 1950, Herman became the student of Carlos Quizpez Asín at the School of Fine Arts in Lima, where he studied for a year and a half. At the beginning of 1951, his brother Max (19), who signed Fernando Vega, decided to travel to Paris to be a painter. At the end of that year (1951), Herman, with only 18 years old, also moved to Paris to be a painter. Introduced by his brother to the poet Jean Sénac, he evolved as soon as he arrived in the Parisian artistic community in a privileged way as a resident of the Hôtel du Vieux-Colombier, then managed by Maria Manton and Louis Nallard. In Paris, he had for the first time the opportunity to see original works by great masters that he had only known until then through reproductions. From that moment he will continue his training as an autodidact, in contact with other artists, and by studying the works of the great masters of painting in museums.

In October 1952 his son Eric was born from a temporary affair with a young Frenchwoman, Camille Mülder, model of the photographer Albert Monier, who regularly frequented Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Herman had to abandon painting and dedicate himself to interior design, working for Jean Royère on whose behalf he finds himself in charge of opening a decoration agency in Peru. In 1955 he returned to Lima, where he opened an agency with architect Juan Gunther.[5] But soon, despite the success of the business, the need to paint arises again. In Lima, he meets Nicole Boussel, a young mother of two blond children. The blended family he forms with his son, Nicole and her two boys will be a recurring source of inspiration in the years 63 to 66.[6] In 1965, his brother Fernando (Max) died in Ibiza of an overdose of heroin.[7]

In November 1967, Herman returned to Paris with his son.[5] There he met Lisbeth Schaudinn, a young German, a UNESCO official, who would become the woman of his life. With her, he visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona in 1968. There he discovered, the series that the master dedicated to the meninas of Velázquez. This discovery marked a decisive turning point in his work. Lisbeth, his wife and model,[8] provides Herman with logistical support that allows him to devote himself entirely to his art. Living in Paris, he did not forget Peru and made many round trips to Lima. The Peruvian press quickly echoes the success of the country's child with the Parisian critics.[9] He exhibits in Paris, Lima, New York, Brussels... In the 1970s, from exhibitions to exhibitions, he developed new techniques and new themes that would enrich his future works. He travels a lot and his trips to Peru are so frequent that he gets a house built there. From the 1980s, his work resembles his life, shared between European culture and his Latin American origins.

In 1999, tired of making daily trips between his apartment on the rue des Apennins downtown Paris and his workshop in Saint-Denis, he decided to sell everything to buy in Arcueil, in the surburbs of Paris, not far from the workshops of his friends Vladimir Velickovic, Antonio Segui and François Arnal, an old factory that he transforms to install both his residence and his workshop.[10] Despite the scale of the project, the architecture of which he designed himself, the pace of his artistic production did not slacken. But health problems began. In 2009, his wife Lisbeth died of illness. After this painful episode, he will eventually find a much younger companion, Violette Wojcik, an enthusiastic admirer, who finds herself suffering from leukemia only a few months after their meeting. He himself suffers from Parkinson’s disease and painfully completes his last paintings in 2014. He felt so much devastated by the loss of Violette in 2016 that his state of health did not allow him to attend the funeral. Despite everything, he shows determination and claims to have his next painting in mind, but he will never paint again until his death on April 2, 2019.