 After an apprenticeship as a painter and gilder in Landshut, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and became a free-lance artist.He produced a wide variety of illustrative material and briefly worked for the "Reichsdruckerei" (Imperial Printing Office).An old friendship with Léon Hornecker led him to the École des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg in 1891, where he was briefly retained as a drawing instructor.