Of unknown parentage, he was given the name "Stirnbrand" (brow burn) when he was baptized, in recognition of a scar on his forehead; the result of a childhood accident.
[1] Found abandoned in a ditch, he was presumed to be the illegitimate son of a Croatian soldier from a unit stationed nearby,[2] and was raised as a foster child by a local tax official named Johann Baptist Röser.
His first art lessons came from Philipp Friedrich von Hetsch, who was resting in Enns at the home of one of Rösers relatives, on the way back to Germany from Italy.
Faced with military conscription, he fled to Frankfurt where he found work in a tin factory, painting portraits of famous people on cans and cups.
[3] In 1830, he built his own home and hosted salons with many notable guests from the fields of art, music and theater such as Nikolaus Lenau, Franz von Dingelstedt and Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer.