He completed an apprenticeship as a scene painter and interior decorator, and subsequently studied in Karlsruhe and Munich before going to Paris in 1906.

It was here he became a student and later a friend of Henri Matisse whom he set up a painting school with.

[1][2] After 1916, Purrmann lived in Berlin and Langenargen (Lake Constance), moving from there in 1935 to run the German art foundation at the Villa Romana in Florence.

[5] Typical of Purrmann's style are colourful, sensitively painted landscapes, still lifes and portraits.

There are large collections of his works in Langenargen Museum and in the Purrmann House, Speyer.