A Life of Lithography and Art Born in Berlin, Germany, John Gast was a Prussian-born American painter and lithographer. He was the son of Heinrich Konrad "Leopold" Gast and Bertha Pauline Henriette Volkmann. His family emigrated from Berlin to central Missouri before moving to St. Louis. His father, Leopold, was a master lithographer who established the August Gast Banknote and Lithograph Company with his brother August. John followed in his father's footsteps, earning a degree from the Royal Academy in Berlin before returning to St. Louis. He later traveled to Paris to study art around 1867…