Max Todt studied painting from 1863 to 1867 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . There Andreas and Karl Müller , Heinrich Mücke and Julius Roeting were his teachers. He was also a private student of Wilhelm Sohn . From 1870 to 1871 he took part in the Franco-German war in part as a volunteer and returned in poor health home. After that he was unable to work for a long time. In 1877 he moved to Munich. He occupied himself with genre painting, preferring scenes from the time of the Thirty Years' War . Todt died in Munich at the age of 43.