Leo Meissner was born in Hamtramck, Michigan in 1895 in the heart of the newly industrialized areas around Detroit. He enrolled at age fifteen in the Detroit Fine Art Academy where he studied with John P. Wicker (1860-1931). The exigencies of study without a scholarship or much financial support from his Bohemian immigrant parents led young Leo to have to balance schooling in art with working odd jobs.

He made his way from about 1910 until he enlisted in World War I learning about art under Wicker and working to support his schooling. On the troop ship to France, Meissner fell in love with the turbulent swells of the Atlantic and decided that it would be a fine subject for painting. He pursued the sea as a major theme in his pa...