Ažbe did all the teaching at the school by himself. This left little time for his own painting. In his later years Kandinsky wrote about his old teacher's generosity and kindness. Ažbe often gave free lessons to students who could not afford to pay. Ažbe died from cancer in 1905 at the age of 43. His obituary in a Munich newspaper described him as a man of great modesty and one of the city's "most original and best-known artistic personalities."