He was the son of a teacher. Originally, he intended to take up a career in science and attended the engineering school in
Glogau. His interests soon turned to art and, from 1854 to 1856, he attended the
Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. Until 1860, he worked in the studios of
Julius Hübner in
Dresden. After two years in
Leipzig, he entered the
Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School, where he studied under
Ferdinand Pauwels. He became a professor there in 1866. During the
Franco-Prussian War, he was a draftsman at the Prussian Third Army's headquarters. In 1875, he was appointed Professor at the
Academy of Arts, Berlin and held that position until 1887. He travelled extensively throughout his life; visiting Hungary and
Transylvania and spending some time studying in England, in addition to the usual art-related tours of Italy and France. From 1887 to 1891, he lived in Italy. He took over the Master Studio of Professor
Julius Schrader in 1892. He primarily worked as an illustrator, producing plates for books by
Goethe,
Tennyson,
Chamisso,
Heine and many others. The elegance of his illustrations attracted many admirers but, as time went by, his work became increasingly facile. He married a woman from the English nobility. One of his daughters married a brother of the poet
Algernon Swinburne. In 1893, Thumann exhibited his work ''Psyche at Nature's Mirror'' at the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago where it got the interest of the management of the
White Rock Mineral Water who then purchased the reproduction rights from Thumann to use the image as part of the logo for their mineral water. == Illustrations (a selection) ==