Connoisseur and art critic, co-founder of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. Bayersdorfer initially studied medicine before moving to Munich in 1853 and switching to the humanities. Beginning in 1862 he studied philosophy, art history as well as economics, never attaining a degree in any of these fields. In 1870 he became noted as a journalist and chess player. In the following years he wrote for the theatre reviews for the newspapers of Vienna and Munich, including Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger and Die Walküre, 1868/70.