Carlos Schwabe was born in Germany in 1866 and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, receiving his artistic training at the École des Arts Décoratifs. He moved to Paris in 1890, where he became involved within Symbolist circles, winning favour as an illustrator of mystical religious themes, such as his poster for the first Salon de la Rose+Croix in 1892. This annual exhibition in Paris showcased mystical Symbolist art, particularly a hermetic, numinous vein of Symbolism that was favoured by Péladan and dominant during the 1890s, a time when religious and occult practices often intertwined.