Christian Maximilian Baer was a German still life, history and genre painter.

Baer attended the commercial school and grammar school in his home town, then studied drawing at the Nuremberg Royal School of Arts and Crafts under Karl Raupp and accompanied his master on his study trips to the Bavarian Alps.

From 1874, Baer studied painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich under Alexander von Wagner and later under Wilhelm von Lindenschmit the Younger. Baer became associated with the Leibl-Trübner circle. Baer's house no. 21 on the Fraueninsel, the so-called Malergütl, was an artistic hub and became a meeting place for many well-known artists. The house, which is now a listed building, is still owned by the family today.

From 1878 to 1911, Baer was represented almost every year at the Munich Glass Palace Exhibitions, where he was twice awarded a gold medal. In 1895 he was a member of the painting jury. In 1911, the year of his death, on the occasion of the jubilee exhibition in honor of the 90th birthday of His Royal Highness, Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, a total of eighteen of his paintings were exhibited in room no. 39. Many of his works appeared in the Gartenlaube.

His wife Rosa Baer, née Stradal (1858-1941), was the sister of the composer and Liszt pupil August Stradal. She also served as a model for many of his paintings.

The engineer Herbert Baer and Friedrich Baer were his sons.