Painter and printmaker Karl Caspar was born in Friedrichshafen, Germany, in 1879. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where he become a member of the Stuttgart Artists' Association and the German Artists' Association. Following graduation, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he would establish his studio and career. 

From 1922 to 1937 Caspar was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He exhibited regularly and was a part of the Munchener Neue Secession along with Alexje von Jawlensky, Paul Klee, and Alexander Kanoldt. With the rising Nazi power, many of these artists' works were branded "degenerate" and confiscated by the Nazi's for display in their 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition, meant to destroy the careers of anti-totalitarian artists, writers, and thinkers. Despite his Christian-themed works, Caspar was included in the show based on his Impressionist and Expressionist styles. He was subsequently let go from his position as professor at the Academy and the work of his that was held in museums and galleries was destroyed. He soon relocated with his family to Brannenburg, where he remained for the rest of his life. 

Once the second World War had concluded, Caspar was invited back to the Academy in Munich where his position was fully reinstated, and in 1948 he become a founding member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. In 1950 Germany awarded CAspar the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic. 

Caspar became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1955, one year before his death. He was awarded the Upper Swabian Art Prize jointly with his wife, painter Maria Filser, in 1952. His work can be found in the collections of the Abteiberg Museum and the Zeppelin Museum in Germany; the Sztuki Museum, Lodz; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA. 

He died in Brannenburg in 1956.