Bernhard Fries was the son of Christian Adam Fries, a wealthy banker and collector from Heidelberg. He was the brother of the artists Ernst (1801 - 1833) and Wilhelm.The children were exposed to art from an early age, the father having an important collection of contemporary, principally British pictures. Christian Adam Fries was acquainted with and collected the Scottish artist George Augustus Wallis (who stayed in Heidelberg between 1812 - 1816) Carl Rottman, and others. Bernhards brother Ernst Fries studied under Friedrich Rottmann, worked closely with Carl Rottmann, and became court painter at Karlsruhe.Bernhard himself studied anatomy and figure drawing under Johan Karl Koopmann in Karlsruhe. He progressed with his studies so quickly that in 1835 at the early age of fifteen he was accepted by the Munich Academy. The artist spent from 1835 - 1837 at the Munich Academy, before leaving, apparently without the knowledge of his parents or teachers, for Rome. He remained in Rome until 1846 except for a three-year period spent at the Dusseldorf Academy between 1840 - 1843. Over the next years he travelled to Geneva, Paris, Munich, Heidelberg and Rome before settling again in 1854 in Munich.The artists most striking and appealing pictures are his Italian subjects, although he also achieved great success with his German forest landscapes. Pictures by the artist are in several museum collections including Darmstadt, Halle, Karlsruhe, Munich (Neue Pinakothek and Schackgalerie), Stuttgart and Zurich.