He was born into an artistic environment. His grandfather, , was the
court painter in
Baden and his mother, Marie (1852–1889), was a portrait painter. His father, Viktor, was a doctor, so he initially studied medicine and philosophy in Munich, from 1902 to 1904, then spent five years in Paris, where he was a student of
Lucien Simon. While there, he devoted himself primarily to landscape painting, under the influence of
Paul Cézanne. With his friend,
Jules Pascin, he travelled to Belgium and The Netherlands. Later study trips took him to Northern and Southern France, then to Vienna, Budapest and Stockholm. In 1910, he stayed briefly in Berlin, then continued his travels; this time to
Engadin (near Munich), the
Tegernsee and Italy, where he lived with his friend,
Hans Purrmann. Upon returning to Germany, he lived in Berlin; creating book illustrations and portraits of celebrities, many of which were featured in the satirical magazine
Simplicissimus. In 1928, he became a Professor at the
Royal School of Art. He was also a member of the
Berlin Secession and the
Deutscher Künstlerbund. After
Adolf Hitler's rise to power, in 1934, he was dismissed from his professorship and retired to his hometown. Under the
National Socialist government, his works were declared to be "
degenerate art" and 206 of them were confiscated. Three were put on display at the propagandistic
Degenerate Art Exhibition of 1937. ==Selected works==