The Austrian portrait and genre painter Eduard Charlemont was the son of Matthias Adolf Charlemont (1820-1871), whom he helped produce miniature portraits at a very young age. The origins of his equally virtuoso and unerring hand in drawing and painting probably also lie in his early schooling. His brother Hugo Charlemont (1850-1939) achieved great fame as a landscape painter, and his brother Theodor Charlemont (1859-1938) was a sculptor and student of Caspar Zumbusch. Eduard Charlemont taught as a drawing teacher at a girls' school (1863). He himself was a pupil of Eduard von Engerth at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he was discovered by Hans Makart and subsequently strongly influenced by him. From 1870 he worked in Makart's studio in Gußhausstrasse (Vienna). His main works are three large (18 meters long) ceiling paintings in the foyer of the Burgtheater in Vienna. As an independent artist, he gained fame for his portraits, especially his portraits of children. After an intermezzo in Italy, Eduard Charlemont lived in Paris for almost three decades. Here, Ernest Meissonier in particular was one of his role models.