Jacob Hartgen ran a bakery in Reading, Pennsylvania, before becoming the baker at the Reading Almshouse. While working there, he made monetary donations to one of the inmates, a German-born itinerant artist and alcoholic named Charles C. Hofmann, who in exchange for a few pennies "to fill his bottle," would paint pictures. Hartgen thus acquired four paintings--a view from the Almshouse, two religious subjects, and a portrait of Mrs. Hartgen.