Etcher John Winkler was born in Vienna and emigrated to the United States in 1907 where he first worked as an itinerant laborer. In 1911 he enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied etching and where he published his first work consisting of San Francisco scenes. He worked in France and London in the early 1920s, producing a series of etchings depicting pastoral landscapes, cathedrals, and daily life in Normandy and, following the footsteps of Whistler, a series of etchings depicting life along the Thames. In 1929, Winkler returned to California and enlarged the scope of his European work; during his lifetime, he produced more than six hundred plates. His work, produced in small editions, is held by numerous libraries and museums in the U.S. and Europe. Winkler died at El Cerrito, California.