 After early exhibiting a talent for drawing and painting, he went to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where his teachers were Ludwig von Loeffts and the history painter Wilhelm Lindenschmidt.Aside from a few trompe-l'oeil paintings, his paintings generally depict individuals within highly detailed interiors.He is especially known for his paintings of men in cluttered offices filled with business furnishings or laboratory equipment, such as his several paintings of the mineralogist Thomas Price.