Pál Böhm was born in Nagyvárad (Oradea), in 1839. After years of apprenticeship, he first worked as a sign-board and scenery painter, then joined strolling actors. He learnt to paint from Antal Hahn in Nagyvárad and lived on altar and portrait painting. The year 1862 saw him work in Debrecen and in Pest, from where he moved to Vienna to paint copies of old masters. Later he opened a school for painters and became the master of László Paál. He moved to Pest in 1867, where he began to paint genre scenes and landscapes.

He travelled to Munich on a fellowship in 1871, where he painted romantic genre scenes took out of the gypsies life – these paintings brought his name into notoriety. He visited Szolnok several times between 1873-75. He painted pictures of what he saw there with delicate artistry ("Retter Straw Stracks", "By the Banks of Tisza River", and "Gypsy Camp").