Born on 8 July 1840 in Sopron (then in the Austrian Empire). He studied at the Vienna Academy and in Düsseldorf before practising as a history painter in Munich 1859-62. Returning to Vienna, he became a Professor at the Academy and a fashionable portrait painter. He met the Crown Princess of Prussia in 1873 and painted her portrait many times (e.g. in 1874, 1877, 1880, 1882 and 1893); she recommended him to Queen Victoria, whose portrait he painted in 1875, 1890 and 1899. He died in Vienna on 21 October 1925.