Sarkis Erganian, whose work also appears at auction under the incorrect spelling of Sarkus Erganian, worked from a small studio in St. Louis, Missouri, exhibiting his signature landscape and marine paintings with the Saint Louis Art Guild.

He led a colorful life through poverty, war, and the Bolshevik threat, spanning several continents. Born into poverty in Asiatic Turkey, from early on, he had a desire to paint and learn, saving the little money he could get to attend the prestigious State Fine Arts School in Constantinople. He spent a year there, under harrowing conditions, returning home as a stowaway on a sea vessel, starved, and violently ill. Nursed back to health by the family, he obtained a position as a t...