Education
Born to an ethnic German family in Zug, Trenk studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, in the Kingdom of Prussia"s Rhine Province.
Born to an ethnic German family in Zug, Trenk studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, in the Kingdom of Prussia"s Rhine Province.
He first arrived in the Austrian-ruled region of Transylvania around 1846, and moved to Wallachia in 1851. He remained in Wallachia as it became a constituent part of the Romanian Kingdom, and never again left its territory. Later in life, Trenk was naturalized a Romanian.
He came to associate with Odobescu, and was appointed by the latter official illustrator of the magazines printed by the Romanian Commission of Historical Monuments.
Trenk traveled throughout the regions of Muntenia and Oltenia, creating a large number of oil paintings featuring rural scenes, historical relics, and natural scenes—including several depictions of the Olt River near the Cozia Monastery. Foreign a while, he taught drawing at a Bucharest gymnasium, and had the major Romanian painter Ion Andreescu among his students.