Under Ludwig's instruction, Brödel gained a basic knowledge of medicine and became recognized for his detailed medical illustrations.

In the late 1890s, he was brought to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore to illustrate for Harvey Cushing, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and other notable clinicians.

At age 15, Brödel began to develop his artistic abilities at the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts in a program for painting and drawing, where he learned artistic techniques reflecting the 19th-century arts education with an emphasis on the development of fine, precise drawings[1][2] This meticulous attention to detail and accuracy was one of the skills that Brödel was later praised for in his medical illustrations.

[3] Brödel was introduced to fellow artist, medical illustrator, and future wife, Ruth Huntington, by Howard Kelly.

A graduate of zoology and botany from Smith College, Ruth also received Franklin P. Malls' invitation and had begun illustrating for Charles Bardeen as part of the Hopkins Anatomy Department in 1900.

[6] Elizabeth later followed her father's footsteps and became a medical illustrator for New York Hospital, and Carl became a geology professor at Johns Hopkins University.

[4] Despite his minimal scientific background and lack of medical knowledge, Brödel and his artistic potential were well received by esteemed German physician and physiologist, Carl Ludwig.

[12] Highly sought after by anatomist Franklin P. Mall and other physicians for his meticulous attention to detail and realism in his medical illustrations, Brödel's skills were a valuable asset to the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Shortly after his employment, Brödel was joined by fellow medical illustrators, Hermann Becker and August Horn, both of whom had also attended the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts.

Its release garnered widespread praise and recognition, cemented Kelly's preeminent status in the field of gynecology, and established Brödel's role as a pioneering medical illustrator.

[16] In a bulletin to Johns Hopkins, Brödel wrote "No drawing was made by me without original study through injection, dissection, frozen section, or reconstruction.

[16][17][18] On March 24, 1899, Brödel was diagnosed with a streptococcus infection on his hand and arm, caused by improper practice of handling anatomical dissections without gloves.

[4] With the onset of World War I, Brödel experienced alienation and disillusion living amongst anti-German sentiment in the United States along with his mother's declining health back in Germany.

Henriette Brödel would end up dying November 2, 1915, and Max would become more introverted as the years went on, realizing he had overestimated the amount of importance and growth his medical illustration training program was to receive, expecting it to grow in stature in ways it never did.

He had been looking for an acceptable medium able to show the vividness and detail characteristic of living tissue, and made the breakthrough using clay-surfaced lithographic transfer paper.

Increasing the depth and dimension of the image, the carbon dust technique was able to add highlights, shadows, and texture to Brödel's work.

Due to the limitations of the black and white printing era, the relative ease of reprinting artwork created with carbon dust made this a highly suitable technique for a wide variety of scientific illustrations.

[24] In an article published in the September 1911 edition of The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, Brödel laid out his case for the creation of the department.

Many former students at the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine would later make up a large percentage of the founding members of the Association of Medical Illustrators, which began in 1945.

[20] Several notable artists who were heavily influenced by Brödel include the following:[20] Institutions that have been influenced by Brödel's work in medical illustrations include the Wilmer, Brady, Mayo and Lahey clinics, the American Museum of Natural History, and Yale, Minnesota, Rochester, Toronto and Tulane Universities.