The artist painted his last painting in December of 1970. Thereafter, Peiffer Watenphul limited himself to drawings, watercolors, and lithographs. The artist moved into his sister’s house in Rome for health reasons in 1972, where he began to prepare his catalogue raisonné assisted by his niece Alessandra. Max Peiffer Watenphul died in Rome on July 13, 1976, shortly before his eightieth birthday, and was laid to rest in the cemetery at the Pyramid of Cestius.