1880 - Breaks off his engineering education to become a painter. 1881 - Studies at the Royal School of Drawing. 1885 - Three weeks' stay in Paris. The Father dies. 1892 - Exhibits in Berlin's Artists' Association.
Scandal causes premature closure.
1893 - Lives in Berlin and works on The Frieze of Life motifs. 1894 - First etchings and lithographs. 1895 - The younger brother Andreas dies. 1896 - First colour lithographs, colour etchings and woodcuts executed in Paris. 1906 - Decorations for Max Reinhardt's staging of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts in Berlin .