He was originally destined for an army career, and served for ten years in a Saxon cavalry regiment. He studied painting in Munich and then in Paris with Munkacsy, whose influence helped to direct Uhde towards painting religious pictures. These were popular both in France and Germany. Uhde's originality consists in the fact that his sacred figures are not presented in the usual conventional way, but quite simply form part of the modern world.In 1880, Uhde met Liebermann in Munich, and it was his influence that made him gradually give up the bituminous paint of his early canvases and adopt the bright clear colours of 'open-air' painting (The Bavarian drummers, 1883). He is rather too fond of 'anecdotal' painting (The Children's room, 1889) but several of his pictures, sensitively and delicately painted, well convey the effect of sunlight filtering through leaves.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978