He was the only child of the ceramic painter Wilhelm Joseph Vianden (1788–1818) and his wife Anna Maria, née Weyh (1788–1866).

After a short stay, they moved to Wisconsin, where they stood near Burlington for a while, before they settled down in Milwaukee, and applied for US citizenship.

In May 1850 they moved to a suburb, now part of Milwaukee, where he taught in his open air school near Root Creek.

He also taught in his studio at 111 Mason Street, Milwaukee, and at Peter Engelmann's German-English Academy, today University School of Milwaukee, as well as at the German, French, and English Academy of Mathilde Franziska Anneke.

He sold part of his land to the Forest Home Cemetery in his lifetime, and is buried there.