Julius Hamburger was born in Presbourg on the Danube, now Bratislava capital of Slovakia, in the Austro- Hungarian Empire on 2nd April 1830.

Hamburger made the short journey to Vienna, a railway line was established between the two cities in 1848, to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Here he studied under Johann Ender (1793-1854), a portrait painter, Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862), a painter of historical and religious subjects and Professor from 1837 and Karl von Blaas (1815–1894) appointed Professor in 1850 and a painter of Historical subjects and portraits.

Hamburger established himself as a painter of portraits in Vienna, one of the most affluent cities in Europe, and as a painter of cats and dogs. The latter part of the nineteenth century saw an increasing vogue among the wealthy and middle classes to have paintings and portraits of their pets, and also working dogs. Artists such as Hamburger in Vienna and Henriette Ronner-Knip (1821-1909) in Amsterdam received numerous commissions from this burgeoning middle class for paintings of cats and dogs.

Julius Hamburger died in Vienna the city he had made his home on 23rd February 1909.