The artist was born in the German town of Altona. During the mid-1840s he studied at the Düsseldorf Academy and some of his early work was collected by King Christian VIII of Denmark. He later settled in England where he worked as a portraitist and landscape painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy between 1857 and 1879. He also saw some of his work published in the 'Illustrated London News'. He was heavily involved in the New Forest Exhibition of 1876 and campaigned for the Forest's preservation. Mark Ash Wood is part of a larger area of forestry to the west of Lyndhurst and it is possible that this painting appeared in the 1876 exhibition. The previous owner of the picture, George Powell of Nanteos House, Aberystwyth, was a friend of the artist and consequently a collection of his letters are held by the National Library of Wales.