Alfred Basel was born on 23 March 18 in Vienna. His father was a factory owner. Alfred studied at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule under Felician von Myrbach between 1892 and 1898.
He was a reserve officer during the First World War, serving with the rank of Oberleutnant in the Fourth Army on the Galician Front from March 1915. In the autumn of that year, Alfred became ill and was declared unfit for military service. By November 1915, he had been appointed to serve as a war artist serving the Kriegspressequartier. In 1916 he was on the Vistula, in the Carpathians, in Albania, on the Isonzo, and in the Ukraine. It was his artistic breakthrough.
In 1919, at the winter exhibition of the Wiener Künstlerhaus, Basel exhibited his work outside of the Kriegspressequartier for the first time. His treatment of military events was careful and accurate, and both stylistically and biographically he has many similarities to Oskar Laske. Like him, Basel avoids sensationalising or exaggerating, and favours crowds of small figures and a simplicity approaching photographic accuracy.
Alfred died on 24 January 1920 from the effects of a hunting accident in Dickenau, Türnitz, Lower Austria.
