Anton Gutknecht was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1907 and died in 1988. He studied in Dusseldorf, Munich, and Hamburg, and instructed for many years at Vienna's Royal Academy before moving to southern California where he settled in Palm Springs. Gutknecht has travelled extensively all over the world, painting a wide variety of subjects. His works have won prizes in international competitions in Vienna, Paris, Rome, Naples, and Venice. His paintings are a mixture of realism with an idealistic beauty. Some of his Southern California scenes were reproduced as commercial prints. A 1980 book published by Foster Art Books titled "Painting Landscapes and Seascapes" by Anton Gutknecht" brought him recognition in the United States.