Olaf August Andreas Jernberg was born in Düsseldorf, a son of the Swedish genre painter August Jernberg (1826-1896). Like his father, Olaf Jernberg studied at the Düsseldorf Academy (1872-79), specializing in landscape painting under Eugène Gustav Dücker (born 1841). In 1880 Jernberg went to Paris, where he was influenced by the French painters of the Barbizon School, especially Jean François Millet (1814-1875) and Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867). Like them, he used warm, muted colors to depict simple, unidealized views of nature, often including peasants going about their everyday activities. After leaving Paris in 1882, Jernberg settled in Düsseldorf and painted rural landscapes and scenes of peasant life set in coastal regions of Holland, Belgium, and Germany. Jernberg taught at the Academy in Königsberg from 1901 to 1918 and in Berlin from1918 until his death in 1935. He exhibited widely, winning medals in London, Berlin, and Munich. His paintings are in museums in France and Germany.