Edmund Henry Osthaus was born in Hildesheim, Germany in 1858. He studied at the Royal Academy in Dusseldorf. Osthaus came to the United States in 1883 where he accepted a position with the Toledo Academy of Fine Arts in Toledo, Ohio. When the school closed, he began a full time career of painting. The primary areas of concentration were in hunting and fishing but most especially with the theme of hunting dogs. Osthaus died in 1928 near Marianna, Florida.