Ernst Stöhr

His father, Karl (1825–1909), was a violin maker and his uncle, Ludwig Stöhr (1836–1902), who lived with his family, was a music teacher, composer and Director of the Sankt Pölten Musikvereins.

He was displeased with the stiffly formal training at the University, however, and in 1879, switched to the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied with Carl Rudolf Huber [de] and August Eisenmenger.

He persevered until 1887, when he began travelling between Sankt Pölten, Melk and Wochein, where his cousin, Friederike, ran a hotel.

In 1895, he organized a successful exhibition of works by the recently deceased Theodor von Hörmann, an early critic of the Academy.

That same year, he designed the façade for a house his brother Hermann (a doctor) was building in Sankt Pölten; now preserved as the Stöhr-Haus.