A pupil at the Düsseldorf academy, where he later became a professor, Clarenbach often painted nature in winter. His work featured in collective thematic exhibitions, including An Earthly Paradise: the Volmer Collection ( Das Irdische Paradies. Sammlung Volmer), 2003, an exhibition about the Düsseldorf School between 1819 and 1918, at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal.

Born in poor circumstances, Max Clarenbach became a full orphan at the age of 12 years. He was primarily a landscape painter influenced by the French Impressionists, who later studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he later taught from 1917-45.

Between 1923-30, he was concerned with theater and sports scenes. Nevertheless, he especially concentrated on winter motifs and also on the atmospheric observation of the other seasons. While the landscape of the Lower Rhine was initially the center of his work, he later painted in the Westerwald, Bergisch Land, the Ruhr Valley, and frequently from 1912 in the Sauerland.

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Düsseldorf: Still Day
Strasbourg: Winter Landscape