From 1889 to 1894, he attended the Prussian Academy of Art then, from 1894 to 1897, the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied with Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury.

Among his best-known portraits are those of Gerhart Hauptmann, Ernst Barlach, Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz and Eugen d’Albert.

He also created portraits of Reichsminister Bernhard Rust and Joseph Goebbels and posed for his friend, the sculptor Arno Breker.

[3] He was not well thought of by Adolf Hitler, however, and his works were removed from the "Großen Deutschen Kunstausstellung" at the Haus der Kunst in 1937.

[citation needed] He was commissioned to paint a portrait of Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld in 1938, and stayed with the Dutch royals at Soestdijk Palace.