Adolf van der Venne was born in Vienna, Austria in 1828. He was the son of Dutch immigrants and studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Vienna. Adolf specialized in depictions of rural life and animals, especially horses. Adolf spent several years in the north Serbian town of Erba during the 1860's, where he worked on religious paintings. He then moved to Munich. Adolf van der Venne died in 1911, in Schweinfurt, Germany.