Ignaz Gaugengigl was born in Passau, Bavaria in 1855. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich where he studied under Johann Leonhard Raab and Wilhelm von Diez. In 1880, he visited his sister in Boston and decided to stay. He was named the “Meissonier of Boston” and painted many portraits of the “Boston Brahmins” and their families. Additionally, he was one of the founders of the Guild of Boston Artists. Gaugengigl died at his studio in Boston in 1932.