Artist. Born in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe,  Germany,  he studied painting at the Academy of Arts, Dusseldorf and in Munich with August von Kaulbach and Karl Schorn. He worked first as a lithographer and miniaturist. In 1849 he joined the Munich art association. In 1853, he emmigrated to the United States. First settling in New York City and then Syracuse before an 1857 move to Washington, DC where he took part in the decoration of the Capitol. Over the next fifteen years, he co-founded the Washington Art Association and became a teacher at Gallaudet as an instructor of the deaf and blind. Shortly after President Lincoln’s second inauguration, Baumgras began a portrait of him from memory and from photographs; he finished it soon after Lincoln’s assassination. It is likely his most famous work. During the Civil War, Baumgras was a medic and draftsman, and after, he taught at the Naval Academy at West Point. In 1869 he settled in California painting mining and Yosemite scenes. By 1877 he settled in Chicago working as a professor of art at the University of Illinois. (bio by: Iola)