Julius Rolshoven was born in Detroit, moving to New York to begin his art studies at Cooper Union in 1877, progressing to the Dusseldorf Academy, then to Munich, and finally travelling to Paris in 1882 to study at the Academie Julian. After teaching art in Paris for six years, Rolshoven moved to London and afterwards to Florence. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 forced the artist to return to the United States. In 1916, inspired by the examples of New Mexico architecture he had seen at the Panama California Exposition in San Diego, Rolshoven decided to honeymoon in New Mexico. He and his wife were immediately captivated by Santa Fe and Taos and spent over two years in New Mexico before returning to Florence.

Rolshoven was elected an associate member of the Taos Society of Artists in 1917 and became an active member the following year. A studio was made available to him in the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, although he often set up a tent for outdoor sketching which helped to soften the effect of the harsh New Mexico light. Rolshoven befriended many of the local Indian people by painting their portraits, although many of his more fanciful subjects such as Taos War Chief were completed in his Italian studio. He said: "I have traveled all over . . . in search of atmosphere, but nowhere else have I seen nature ever provide everything, even the conception, as it does in New Mexico" (Arell Morgan Gibson, The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses, 1900-1942, Norman, Oklahoma, 1983, p. 11). After two years living full time in Santa Fe, Rolshoven divided his last eleven years between Italy and New Mexico, before his death in 1930.

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton