Ernst Henseler studied at the Royal School of Art in Berlin from 1870 to 1871 under Martin Gropius, among others. He received a silver medal as the best in his class. He continued his academic art studies from 1871 to 1877 at the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Art in Weimar, where he developed into an outstanding genre and portrait painter under Karl Gussow, Albert Bauer and Albert Brendel. Paintings from this period can be found in various renowned museums, including Fallersleben Palace, the Berlin National Gallery and the Bomann Museum in Celle. After his return to Berlin, Gropius continued to support Henseler. From 1878 he was a lecturer at various art schools, and from 1881 he taught at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts. In the three imperial years, he was appointed professor of nude drawing at the Technische Hochschule Berlin. Many of his international students later became famous in their fields. Henseler became known throughout Germany as a respected artist, professor, painter and draughtsman whose works were discussed and published in numerous publications. His annual summer holidays in his homeland inspired him to create paintings with motifs from rural life, portraits and history paintings. His works have been presented at exhibitions in Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Hamburg, Kiel, Vienna, London, Paris and St Louis.