BiographyKarl Zerbe was born in Berlin in 1903 and immigrated to the United States in 1934 to escape religious persecution. The artist studied at the Debschitz School in Munich under Josef Eberz from 1921 to 1923 and travelled throughout Italy on a fellowship from 1924 to 1926. Once in the United States, Zerbe became the head of the Department of Painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, a position he held from 1937 to 1955. Zerbe is well known for his expressionistic style and encaustic painting.