The Merioola Group, also known as the Sydney Charm School, was a group of Australian artists active in Sydney during the 1940s and early 1950s. The group was named after Merioola, a Woollahra mansion where many of its members lived.

Michael Kmit was a Ukrainian painter who spent twenty-five years in Australia. He is notable for introducing a neo-Byzantine style of painting to Australia, and winning a number of major Australian art prizes including the Blake Prize (1952) and the Sulman Prize. In 1969 the Australian artist and art critic James Gleeson described Kmit as "one of the most sumptuous colourists of our time".