The painter Eduard Bargheer is best known for his works created on Ischia. In the Mediterranean light and in the simple life of the islanders, he captured the special atmosphere of the south. Less noticed is his time in Florence during the Second World War. Although Bargheer did not have much time for artistic creation, the disturbing events laid the foundation for the upheaval in his style that took place shortly after the war. The account is primarily biographical, but also includes the cultural, political and military situation in Florence from 1938 to 1948. Here, Bargheer was part of a network of people that formed around the German Art History Institute, the German consul Gerhard Wolf and the American art historian Bernard Berenson.