George Kars, Odalisque rouge, 1940

Georges Kars (1882–1945) was born to a German Jewish family in Kralupy nad Vltavou, now in the Czech Republic but then known as Kralup an der Moldau in central Bohemia. His family supported his talent for art, and when he was eighteen he was sent to study in Munich with Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck. In 1905 Kars travelled to Madrid where he met Juan Gris, immersing himself in the painting styles of Velasquez and Goya, then in 1908 he arrived in Paris and settled in Montmartre.