Wilhelm Trübner was born in Heidelberg on 3 February 1851. He started studying painting at the art academy in Karlsruhe in 1867. In the year 1869 Trübner went to Munich to shortly become a student of Alexander Wegner in the academy class. In 1870 the artist finally moved to Munich and attended Academy classes of Diez. Trübner also made his first portraits during this time. The years before 1876 Wilhelm Trübner's artistic work reached a peak. Due to his contacts to Corinth, Slevogt and Liebermann, Trübner joined the Munich Secession in 1892, just to leave it again in the following to become a member of the "Freie Vereinigung München". In 1896 Wilhelm Trübner started working as tutor at the Städelsche Kulturinstitut in Frankfurt/Main, becoming a professor two years later in 1898. He went to the Karlsruhe Art Academy in 1903, being director of the institution in the years 1904 and 1910. Already being at the age of 49, Wilhelm Trübner married his student Alice Auerbach in 1900. She gave birth to their son Jörg in 1902. He died because of a heart condition in Karlsruhe on 21 December 1917.