Hans Hamza (1879-1945) was born in Vienna and is recognised for his charming and highly detailed genre paintings and still lifes. Hamza inherited his artistic skill from his father Johann Hamza, a leading exponent of Viennese genre painting, which was hugely popular in Vienna in the 1880s. Hans Hamza studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts before joining his fathers’ studio and perfecting his skill in depicting figurative and interior scenes. Famed for intimate portraits of female sitters, Hans Hamza was deeply inspired by the masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age. He captured a humble peasant girl with the same elegant attention that he gave elite Viennese upper class beauties, often sitting poised to the side, either reading, embroidering or flower arranging, bathed in a warm light in the manner of Johannes Vermeer. Hans Hamza also depicted jovial gentlemen and peasants in a tavern or sat by the hearth. He delighted in capturing the finest details in all his subjects, rendering an abundance of texture and form within each masterful evocation.