Reinhard Sebastian Zimmermann (1815–1893) was a German painter who trained at the Munich Academy under Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Heinrich Maria von Hess, and Clemens von Zimmermann. Zimmermann began his career as a portrait painter before receiving an appointment as Royal Painter to the Grand Duke of Baden. Following this appointment, he increasingly devoted himself to scenes of Bavarian and Swabian peasant life, a subject that became central to his artistic identity.

Zimmermann often revisited the same motifs, refining and reinterpreting them across multiple versions. His painting Zahlungsschwierigkeiten (Payment Difficulties) is a notable example, first executed in 1852 and reworked several times until 1855.&...