Karl Pferschy, painter and printmaker, was born in Graz, Germany Berg on March 23, 1888. In 1898 his family moved to Bolzano, Italy, located in the Alps below Tyrol and southeast of Graz.

In 1901 he enrolled in sculpture classes at the Arts and Crafts School in Bolzano and then attended the State Trade School in Graz, where he studied decorative painting. From 1906-09 he studied at the Munich Academy under Karl Raupp and Peter Halm, and soon thereafter he returned once again to Bolzano where he studied architecture under Karl Moser, who would also introduce him to the color woodcut technique, which would become Pferschy's preferred medium.

Pferschy served in the military between 1914-18. After World War I ended he returned home where, in 1923, he became a founding member of the Artist Union of Bolzano. Pferschy is noted primarily for his color woodcuts, landscapes, portraits and images of South Tyrol and Trentino, but he also created a large body of oil paintings, etchings and posters.

Karl Pferschy died in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy on August 20, 1930 at age 42.

Exhibitions:
Bolzano Biennale (1922); Esposizione Nazionale Belle d'Arte, Venice and Torino (1928); Venice Biennale and Bolzano Biennale (1930); International Alpine Art Exhibition, Budapest (1930); Graphics 1900 - 1950, Bozen-Treent-Innsbruck (posthumous) (1981/82).