Adalbert Wunder was born in 1827 in Berlin, Germany. He studied art for two years at the Dresden Academy. In 1855 he immigrated to Hartford, Connecticut, where he became a well-known professional portraitist with crayon and ink. He stayed in Springfield from 1868 to 1870 on his way to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. he kept an art studio on the town square. In 1870 he painted Wellington and Lucinda Huffaker's portraits in pastel and drew the children's portraits in charcoal. He used his skills at modeling, proportion, and shading. These family portraits are drawn simple, but elegantly, with plain backgrounds. The subjects are wearing their good clothes, but the portraits are not as grand or ostentatious as are many Victorian-era portraits. The Huffakers may have followed the tradition of hanging their pair of portraits on either side of a fireplace in one of their two parlors at Fancy Point, their new mansion.