Franz Skarbina

1849–1910, Berlin

Franz Skarbina was the son of a goldsmith who had emigrated from the Croatian capital of Zagreb. He studied at the Berlin Academy, where he stayed on as a teacher after 1878. From 1885 to 1886 Skarbina lived and worked in Belgium and France. In Paris he was greatly influenced by the art of the French Impressionists. After his return to Berlin, Skarbina soon came to be considered as one of the main representatives of naturalistic painting in Germany. In 1898 he was one of the founding members of the Berlin Secession.