Schmalz was brought into the world in England to the German Consul, Gustave Schmalz, and his English spouse, Margaret Carmichael; the oldest girl of the painter, James Wilson Carmichael. He got traditional training in painting, first at the South Kensington Art School and later at the Royal Academy of Arts, where he concentrated with Frank Dicksee, Stanhope Forbes, and Arthur Hacker. He idealized his examinations in Antwerp at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After his re-visitation of London, he became well known as a set of experienced painters, with styles impacted by the Pre-Raphaelites and Orientalism.
