Gunnar Berndtson began studying art in the drawing room of the Finnish Art Society in Helsinki, but as this facility only provided instruction in drawing, he also naturally took master classes under some well-known artists. These teachers were noted in a memorial to Berndtson published in Finlands Allmänna Tidning (predecessor of the contemporary Official Gazette) on 10 April 1895, which refers to the portrait painters Erik Johan Löfgren (1825–1884) from Sweden and Bernhard Reinhold (1824–1892) from Germany.

Perhaps because of his nationality, Reinhold is often omitted from histories of artistic life in Helsinki. He is known to have taught some distinguished students including Ida Silfverberg in Dres...