Corneille Max was the eldest son of artist Gabriel von Max. Corneille studied under Gabriel von Hackl and Anton Ažbe and became known as a portrait and landscape painter as well as an etcher. He was a member of the German Association of Artists [Deutschen Künstlerbund]. His brother, Colombo Max (1877-1970), was also an artist.

In 1905, Corneille Max married Wilhelmine Gedon (1877–1943), known as "Stora" or "Storchl," daughter of the noted Munich architect and artist Lorenz Gedon (1844-1883). During the First World War, Corneille suffered a poison gas injury, from the sequelae of which he died in 1924 at the age of 48.