Camillo Melnik was born in 1862 at Mlada Boleslaw, north east of Prague in the central Bohemian region of what is now the Czech Republic. He made his name in Paris, especially when exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français, where for instance he showed a “Portrait de Mme H B” in 1886 and a “Portrait de M M. P” in 1889. That same year he was awarded a bronze medal and later received an honourable mention when showing his work at the Exposition Universelle in 1900.

Before arriving in Paris, he lived in Munich at 11 Schwanthalerstrasse and studied under the allegorical and genre painter Wilhelm von Diez (1839-1907) who was appointed professor at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in 1871. Melnik subsequently moved to Paris. There he furthered his artistic education under Léon Bonnat (1833-1922), who taught the evening course at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1883 until in 1888 when he became a chef d’atelier at the same institution. Famed for his portraits that reflected his love of Spanish masters and a strong sense of chiaroscuro, Bonnat was to have a strong influence on Melnik’s own art.