Georg Merkel (1881, Lemberg - 1976, Vienna) came from a very poor family. He attended secondary school and then worked as a decorative painter. Thanks to the support of a friend, Merkel was able to study painting at the Polish Academy for Arts and Sciences in Krakow from 1903 through 1905 under Josef Mehoffer and Julian Falat. Except for a brief period around 1908/9, he spent the years of 1906 to 1914 in Paris, where he discovered the artistic output of not only the "Classicists" like Nicolas Poussain, Claude Lorrain and Puvis de Chavannes, but also of Cézanne and Picasso.

While Merkel's picturesque landscapes and idyllic figure paintings are influenced by his study of French classicism, they distinguish themselves from those ...