Franz A. Bischoff was born in Bohmen, Austria on January 14, 1864. He received his first art training in the local art school. His artistic aptitude was great and in 1882, decided to continue his studies in Vienna where he studied applied design, watercolor painting and porcelain decoration. Bischoff moved to New York City in 1885 where he worked as a decorator in a china factory. He became one of the most famous porcelain artists of his time specializing in flowers most of which he grew in his own garden. He was best known for his paintings of roses which earned him the name "King of the Roses". In 1906 Bischoff and his family moved to San Francisco, California and began his career as a landscape painter. Soon there after they moved to Pasadena where he opened a studio. Bischoff's paintings were well received by the public and critics alike. In addition to the local landscapes, he painted up the coast in Monterey, and Carmel, in the Sierras, the deserts of Palm Springs and late in his life in Zion National Park in Utah. Bischoff began as a flower painter and evolved into one of America's premier artists. Bischoff died of heart failure in his Arroyo Seco home on February 5, 1929.

Biography courtesy of DeRu's Fine Arts, www.antiquesandfineart.com/derus