Fritz Capelari was an Austrian painter and shin hanga artist born in the town of Bleiburg in 1884. After enrolling in trade school, he discovered his talent for art and stayed an additional year to study graphics before transferring to the Academy of Painting in 1906. 

Upon graduating, Capelari received the prestigious Griepenkerl award for his academic and artistic merits. He was subsequently hired by the British insurance company Lloyds of London, and from 1911 to 1915, traveled extensively throughout Shanghai, Java, and Japan, painting commercially. During a visit to Tokyo in the spring of 1915, Capelari held an exhibition of his prints and met publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, who admired his work. After a brief period working with artist Takahashi Shotei, Watanabe desired an artist who could depict Japanese scenery in a uniquely Western style. He felt Capelari was the man for the job. Beginning with a single print, Returning Home in the Rain, the two men collaborated to produce twelve shin hanga prints throughout the remainder of the year. Subject matter includes bijin-ga, genre scenes, and picturesque landscapes, with colors depicting a modern abstract quality. Significantly, Fritz Capelari was the first Westerner to work with Watanabe Shozaburo and thus became an early influence in the shin hanga movement. Watanabe produced two other prints for Capelari, Fuji from a Desolate Field in 1918 and Pines, Yotsuya Mitsuke, in 1920. However, Capelari's style was more Westernized than Watanabe had envisioned, thereby ending their professional relationship. Capelari left Japan in 1922 and spent the following decade traveling throughout Europe before returning once again to Asia in 1932. During his later years, he settled back in his hometown of Bleiburg and joined the Carinthia Art Society. In 1960, Fritz Capelari passed away at the age of seventy-six.