In 1904, after working as a reporter at the St. Louis World's Fair, he decided to take a trip around the world, visiting Japan, China and Sri Lanka. Following a brief stay in San Francisco to visit his family after the earthquake, he settled in Munich in 1907. It was there that he became a friend of the German painter, Leo Putz, and was introduced to plein-air painting. He also became a member of the Munich Secession. In 1913, he became a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and exhibited with the Salon d'Automne. That same year, he married Clara Lotte von Marcard, a friend of Putz and his wife, Frieda Blell. During the First World War, he lived in Holzhausen on the Ammersee, later establishing studios in Munich and Starnberg, his father's hometown. From 1928 to 1939, he commuted between there and New York, where he spent the winters. The beginning of World War II forced him to leave Germany for good in 1939. He settled in Pasadena, California, where he lived until his death in 1954.