 Interested in art, he first worked as an architect's assistant and studied with the Danish marine artist Lauritz Holst.However, Holst returned to Denmark, leaving his studio to Carlsen.He made rapid progress and was appointed the first teacher of drawing and painting at the Chicago Academy of Design, Carlsen sought more training and embarked for Paris in 1875, where he came under the influence of the French still life painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.