After Thommen's death, he had to support himself with odd jobs while trying to sell his paintings, until the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, when the publisher, Eduard Hallberger, of Stuttgart, hired him to do illustrations of scenes from the war for the magazine "Über Land und Meer". This assignment took him to the military hospital in Karlsruhe, Strasbourg during the bombardment, the Siege of Belfort and Les Verrières for the entry of the Armée de l'Est. This enabled him to begin studying at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, while continuing to work for Hallberger. He also travelled to Vienna, to make copies of the Old Masters, and created anatomical illustrations at the city hospital for publications by Doctor Salomon Stricker.