After taking drawing lessons at a local secondary school, he went to Bamberg in 1875, to study decorative painting.
In 1880, he moved to Munich, became an assistant in the technical drawing school, and made efforts to enter the Academy of Fine Arts.
His instructors included Johann Caspar Herterich, Wilhelm Lindenschmit and Gabriel von Hackl.
In 1915, he painted the "Bayerischen Feldmesse" (Bavarian Field Mass), which was reproduced and distributed widely during World War I, as a communion souvenir.
Another work that was reproduced was a painting of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, created for the altar at the Basilica of St. Ann, Altötting.