Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was born in Zoliborz (Jolibord) a borough of Warsaw. Her father Philip Adolph Baumann (1776-1863), a mapmaker, and her mother, Johanne Frederikke Reyer (1790-1854), were German.

At the age of nineteen, she began her studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf which at the time was one of the most important art centres in Europe and her early subject matter was drawn from Slovak life. She is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. She began exhibiting there and in 1844 attracted public attention for the first time. After she moved to Rome, her paintings were primarily of local life. It was here that she met her future husband, Jens Adolf Jerichau, whom she married in 1846. ...