Ernst Fuchs was born an only child in Vienna in 1930. His carefree childhood ended with the Nazi's entrance in to Austria in 1938. While his father emigrated, Ernst was interned in a transit camp for half-Jews; only the formal divorce from his mother prevented his deportation. Fuchs was baptized in 1942. At the age of fifteen in 1945, he was accepted into the Academy of Visual Arts at Schillerplatz. Until 1950, Fuchs studied under Professor Albert Paris von Gütersloh. Von Gütersloh's painting class became the center of the so-called Viennese School of Phantastical Realism, of which Fuchs was the main practitioner. The artist lived and worked in Paris from 1950 until 1962. His travels sent him to America, Italy, Spain, and England. Fuchs gave himself over to the seclusion of a monastery in Jerusalem for several months during 1957 and painted his Last Supper for the refectory there. He was promoted to professor in 1966. In the early 1970's, Fuchs bought the Villa Wagner in Wien-Hütteldorf, which he converted into his living and working space. Following that, he designed stage sets and costumes for opera and ballet and wrote philosophical essays and poetry. Fuchs' works have been honored in many international solo exhibitions. His first big retrospective was put on in the Palazzo Piagini in Venice. Further retrospectives followed at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and in Gruyère Castle in Switzerland as well as in the Harrach Palace in Vienna. Fuchs lived and worked in Monte Carlo. Villa Otto Wagner was converted into a private museum in 1988 and houses the Fuchs' collection.