In 1876, Jean-Eugène Touret and his family moved to Philadelphia: commercial engineer, the father of Max represents several French industrial companies including Ferdinand Arbey (Paris), major manufacturer of machine tools, exhibited in the French Pavilion designed by Armand Moisant during the Centennial Exposition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, in Philadelphia International Exhibition celebrating the centennial of the founding of the United States. The family decides to stay in America and settle in New York City. In 1877, Jean-Eugène Touret filed a series of patents, for machines to knead bread, to make biscuits, and chocolate. He joins the brewer origin Henry Maillard who owned among others a prestigious boutique on Fifth Avenue. The Touret family lives at 55 West 25th Street. Max’mother, very much in love with art, takes her son to visit the museums and exhibitions in the region, such as the Boston Foreign Exhibition of 1883 and especially the "Works in Oil an Pastel by The Impressionnists of the Paris" (1886), organized by Paul Durand-Ruel, who opens the following year a gallery in New York. Max’s father died that year, aged 46, and his mother decided to return to France.