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Celebrated genre painter Wenzel Tornøe was born in Svendborg Denmark in 1844. He began his training in 1860 and studied at the Royal Danish Academy from 1860 to 1865, winning a medal in 1864. He debuted at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1865 where he continued to exhibit throughout his career until his death 1907, missing only three years. He studied under the well-known painter Carl H. Bloch and surpassed many of his peers in skill. Tornøe began as a historical painter, however in 1864 turned to genre painting taking many of his subjects from his extensive travels.
In 1871 Tornøe travelled at his own expense to Rome, where he painted a number of genre paintings which he marketed to enable him to stay in the South for two years. After his return he exhibited almost exclusively Italian paintings until 1877, but thereafter concentrated mainly on Danish motifs. He married the painter Karen Elisabeth Blumer in 1876. In 1878 he traveled through Holland and Belgium to Paris to see the Great Exhibition and to Northern Italy, where he stayed for 10 months. His later journeys included a trip to Rome in 1886 where he spent a winter.
In addition to the Royal Academy Tornøe also exhibited at the Artists' Association, the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the Nordic Art Exhibition in Lübeck. He worked out of Charlottenborg where he died in 1907. He was known for his happy, anecdotal portraiture and genre scenes painted in the traditional Charlottenborg style enhanced by his bright pallet and strong composition.