Biography:

Born in New York City in 1865, visionary symbolist Pinckney Marcius-Simons moved with his parents to Europe as a small child. At the age of twelve, he began his career as an artist at the Vaugirard College in Paris where he studied with Jehan Georges Vibert. Sentimental genre and history was his primary subject in the early stages of his career, which he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1882. As he progressed as an artist, his interests turned to idealistic, poetic works influenced by Joseph Mallord William Turner and French Symbolism. However, he incorporated aspects that suited his talents and imagination rather than follow the established guidelines of the leaders of the Symbolists. Marcus-Simons was deeply inspired by the The music of Richard Wagner of which he painted a series based on the opera "The Nibelung Rhing." His focus for this series was to orchestrate his pictures as musician scores. In 1909, he died in Bayreuth, Germany, where he worked as a set designer at the Wagner Theater.