Pawel Merwart, a painter specializing in salon portraits of ladies, was an excellent exponent of naturalistic, drawing-room French painting of the late 19th century. He spent his youth in Lviv and began his education with polytechnic studies in Austria. Legend has it that he became interested in drawing while convalescing from a leg wound sustained during a duel. Merwart studied painting as an amateur in Vienna, then went on to Munich, Düsseldorf, and finally Paris. His talent developed rapidly, leading to his debut at the Paris Salon in 1878. Over the following decades, he exhibited in Paris and the United States. Merwart was employed by the French government as a painter for the colonies' department, which allowed him to travel to various...