The bar, "Zum Drachenfels", was a meeting place for the local artistic community, including the composer brothers, Friedrich and Norbert Burgmüller, and the poets, Christian Dietrich Grabbe and Karl Immermann.

[2] He was initially trained to be a stonemason but, in 1845, began attending the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where his primary instructor was the copper engraver, Joseph von Keller [de].

Shortly after, he became a member of the progressive artists' association, Malkasten, and began taking private students; notably Andreas Pickel [de].

The academies in Berlin, Munich, and Brussels named him a member, for his engraving, "The Marriage of the Virgin", after a work by Raphael, which he made following a visit to Milan in 1873.

In 1898 and 1899, he designed two stamps for PTT Nederland (the Dutch post office), one of which was in honor of young Queen Wilhelmina, who had recently come of age to rule independently.