Ellen Hofman-Bang attended Vilhelmine Bangs Tegneskole and subsequently from 1898 to 1902 Kunstakademiet (The Royal Art academy) in Copenhagen under Viggo Johansen (1851–1935). She undertook several travels and study tours - in Paris as a student at the painting school of Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861–1942) and Lucien Simons (1861–1945) in 1906 and later in Italy, The middle east, Greece, Norway, Sweden and England.

Until 1948 Hoffmann-Bang exhibited almost every year at Charlottenborg, her work consisting primarily of religious motifs in the shape of large and often dramatic paintings and altar pieces. As a contrast this minor work shows another side of her production with and more intimate and understated atmosphere.