Bauernfeind 1848-1904 was born in the town of Sulz-am-Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany. He had graduated from the Stuttgart Polytechnic Institute, after an initial start at the office of Professor Wilhelm Baumer, he was employed by Adolf Gnauth who was not only an architect, but also a moderately gifted painter. It was during his time in the employment of Gnauth that Bauernfeind transformed from architect to artist. When traveling to Italy in 1873 and 1874, Bauernfeind refined his artistic skills, although his attention to detail was remarkable, his work found few interested buyers due to the rather mundane subject matter. looked to the East as his new source of inspiration. After his first visit to Jaffa and Jerusalem in 1880-81, he traveled widely in the Middle East, particularly to the Holy Land and Damascus, eventually settling in Jerusalem where he died in 1904.