Markus Larsson studied at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie and belonged to the group of painters who became known as the Dusseldorf School. Lasting from about 1820-1860, the later Dusseldorf School artists were known for their extreme naturalness of representation. The German artists, Andreas Achenbach and Johann Schirmer, two of the leading exponents of the group circa 1850, specialized in landscapes focused in a brittle and clear light. Their larger landscapes tended to be more staged and melodramatic. The Kunstakademie became the established centre of German Romantic painting attracting a large number of aspirants, amongst those who came were many Scandinavian and American painters, including Albert Bierstadt and Eastman Johnson, to mention some of the more famous students.