Julius Hamburger was born in Pressburg on the Danube, now Bratislava. For his education he went to Vienna, where he studied at the academy around 1848 with, among others, the history painter Leopold Kupelwieser and the portrait painter Karl von Blaas. After that, Hamburger settled in Vienna, where there were plenty of opportunities for young, starting artists. He received many commissions for portraits, but as keeping small pets became more and more fashionable among the wealthy Viennese middle class, he painted portraits of cats and dogs.