A rider on a black horse performing a Capriole from l'haute école

Johann Leopold Axtmann was born in 1700 in Fulneck in the Moravian-Silesian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic.

He was apprenticed to the renowned Brussels-born painter Johann Georg de Hamilton (1672-1737) who was court painter in Vienna together with his brother Philipp Ferdinand and both specialised in animal painting but the former was especially renowned for his acutely detailed horse paintings, particularly of the Lippizzaner. Johann Axtmann had gone to Vienna at a young age to work under de Hamilton, successfully following his master's style and technique and can probably be regarded as his most important pupil.

The similarities between master and pupil are striking with the settings of horses with country backgrounds and close attention given to the animal, its movement and details of the bridle and saddle with adornments of silver and coloured ribbons. One of his prime commissioning figures was the noble Count Franz Joseph Czernin von und zu Chudenitz who was a member of one the most prominent families in Bohemia.