Vilhelms Purvītis (3 March 1872 – 14 January 1945) was a landscape painter and educator who founded the Latvian Academy of Art and was its rector from 1919 to 1934.

Vilhems Purvītis was born in Zaube Parish (now Cēsis Municipality), Kreis Riga, in the Governorate of Livonia in a family of a miller.

In 1890 Purvītis started studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia from 1890 to 1897, primarily under Arkhip Kuindzhi, graduating with the Grand Gold Medal.

While in the academy he studied paintings of old Dutch masters and became close friends with two other Latvian painters- Janis Rozentāls and Johan Valter.

In 1898, Purvītis, Rozentāls, and Valter took a study trip across Europe, and his paintings were exhibited in Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Lyon to great acclaim.

Constantly experimenting and becoming a master of snow scenes, Purvītis began as a Realist painter, turned to Impressionism, and was later influenced by Cézanne and Munch.