Janis Karlis Sternbergs was born in Liepaja, Latvia on
February 19, 1900.
He studied at the Art Academy in Riga and studied engraving
with Ferdinand Schirnböck in Vienna. Afterwards he travelled and worked
throughout Russia, Germany and England and then he returned to Riga.
From the late 1920s we find his name mentioned in the stamp
catalogiues of Latvia, though solely as a designer, with the bulk of Latvia’s
stamps printed in lithography.
However, Sternberg did get to engrave two
stamps: the 10s and 20s values of Latvia’s 1938 set marking the 20th anniversary of its independence. The set comprises several Latvian landscape
scenes, but the two stamps by Sternbergs show portraits, of General Balodis and
president Ulmanis, respectively.
Sternbergs attended the Special Army Education Center in
Nurenberg, Germany between 1945 and 1949. He came to the University of Kentucky
in 1949 and taught at Kentucky State College in Frankfort KY between 1964 and
1967.
Janis Sternbergs died in June of 1981 in Dallas, Texas.
You will find Janis Karlis Sternbergs' database HERE.