He was the son of a fruit grower and developed an early interest in nature from the forested, watery surroundings of his birthplace.

He trained as a teacher in Köpenick, then went to teach elementary school in Berlin,[1] where he caught the attention of landscape painter Ferdinand Bellermann, who saw him at work in Schönhausen Palace park.

[2] Bellermann convinced Hagemeister to give up his plans to become a drawing teacher and be an artist instead, helping him to obtain a position in the studios of Friedrich Preller.

From 1871 to 1873, he received classically oriented training at Preller's Weimar Princely Free Drawing School,[2] where he was introduced to Philipp Otto Runge's Farbenkugel and Goethe's Theory of Colours, both of which would heavily influence his thinking on the subject.

[2] Later, he would travel throughout Germany seeking subject matter and gradually began to include figures in his landscapes, employing maids and farmers as models.