From 1848 he studied at the Städel in Frankfurt under Professors Jakob Becker and Johann David Passavant.

For many years he had a studio at the Städel and in Isenburg Castle in Offenbach, the latter of which inspired numerous exterior and interior views in his paintings.

In 1901 on the day of Bode's seventieth birthday, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse bestowed upon him the title of Professor.

Bode was heavily influenced by the religiously-inspired Nazarene style before later pivoting to historical Romanticism, genre painting, and portraiture.

In 1896 he painted the niches in the mourning hall of Frankfurt's southern cemetery and in 1897 he created an altarpiece for the newly built St. Paul's Church of Strasbourg.