Ludwig Knaus (1829–1910) was one of the most celebrated and influential German painters of the 19th-century genre movement. A leading figure of the Düsseldorf School of Art, Knaus later relocated to Berlin, where his fame reached international heights, earning him the patronage of European royalty and wealthy American collectors, such as the Vanderbilts. His career spanned several artistic periods, but he is most closely associated with Academic Realism and "Völkische Malerei" (folk painting). Knaus was a master of capturing the "human comedy"—vibrant, often humorous scenes of peasant life, boisterous village festivals, and the innocence of childhood.