The Silent Witness Damm Ypres Cathedral AD 1915

Herbert Gustave Schmaltz who named himself Herbert Gustave Carmichael in 1918, was an English painter. He is counted among the Pre-Raphaelites. He received conventional education in painting, first at the South Kensington Art School and later at the Royal Academy of Arts and finally in Antwerp at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He made a name for himself as a painter of classical, literary and historical subjects, but time spent in Jerusalem in 1890, proved invaluable in his treatment of New Testament subjects. Schmalz's early work is Pre-Raphaelite in style, but as he matured, his work developed into a more Neo-Classical style with an emphasis on brooding light and atmosphere and proved popular with the public through reproductions in magazines and prints.