(Bad Leonfelden/Upper Austria 1878–1936 Stockerau)
A Street in Ohrid, signed, dated L. Forstner 1919, oil on canvas, 100 x 66 cm, framed

Leopold Forstner was renowned as a graphic artist, painter, sculptor, and was also acclaimed in the field of mosaic and glass production. He studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna under Koloman Moser, who became his mentor. He exhibited works at the 1908 Vienna Art Show, which was organised by Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffman, and also showed work at the spring exhibitions organised by the Vienna artists' association Hagenbund. He rendered his own designs as well as those of other important artists and became famous primarily for his execution of the Klimt mosaic frieze in the Palais Stoclet’s dining room in Brussels.
During the First World War he travelled to the Balkan regions occupied by Austria-Hungary as a collection officer on behalf of the Museum of Austrian Folklore. He travelled through Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, where he was stationed in Ohrid among other places, and captured urban and rural scenes in numerous drawings and travel sketches.
After the end of the war, he moved to Stockerau near Vienna, where he dedicated himself to glass production.