Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School
He was born into an old, established Rhenish merchant family. From 1863 to 1868, he studied with Oswald Achenbach at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1871, he was summoned to the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School to teach landscape painting as a replacement for Max Schmidt, who had left to take another position. Three years later, he received a permanent appointment. He was head of the art department from 1876 to 1881, but grew tired of his administrative duties and returned to teaching. His best-known students were Christian Rohlfs, Hanns Diehl, and Franz Bunke.