Carl Christian Brenner was born in Lauterecken, Bavaria, Germany in 1838, he went to public school in Bavaria and studied with Philip Frolig in Germany before emigrating to the United States at age 15. He first settled in New Orleans where he worked with his father as a glazer. By 1854 he was in Louisville, Kentucky where he worked as a sign and ornamental painter as well as a house painter.

By 1878, Brenner was a full time landscape painter. His favorite subject matter where beech trees and scenes of Cherokee Park in Louisville and the Cumberland Mountains. Combining a range of styles including Tonalism, Realism and Romanticism his paintings were highly prized and collected during his lifetime.

Today his works can be found in both private and public collections including Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum, Speed Art Museum, Morris Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, S.C.

Exhibited: Philadephia Exposition; National Academy of Desig, 1877-1886; Louisville Industrial Exposition, 1879; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, 1878, 1881-85.

Source: Who Was Who in American Art, Peter Falk.