He is among the Chile's greatest painters and one of the four Great Chilean Masters, along with Pedro Lira, Alfredo Valenzuela Puelma and Juan Francisco González.

He liked to portray landscapes of everyday life in the capital city and began with Lo Contador (now Pedro de Valdivia Norte [es] street in Providencia), the mountains of the Cajón del Maipo to the south of Santiago, and the coast of Algarrobo.

He never felt influenced by the bohemian atmosphere of the time, keeping his distance from political conflicts, and was always concerned about the welfare of his parents, siblings and friends in his hometown, taking the train to Colchagua whenever he had the chance to visit his relatives.

Then, in 1891, he won an award at an exhibition in the United States and the Chilean government gave him a scholarship to study in Paris in exchange for some years of teaching .

With no hesitation, he accepted the scholarship and went to France to study with Jean-Paul Laurens, who had taught other Chilean painters such as Alberto Orrego Luco and Alfredo Valenzuela Puelma, in the Académie Julian.

Thanks to the support of the Chilean government, he was able to travel regularly throughout Europe between 1901 and 1906, giving him the chance to visit Spain, Italy and England as well as France, where he continued to study.

Finally, in 1906, he returned home to Chile and was hired to teach drawing at the Liceo Miguel Luis Amunátegui [es] high school in Santiago.

After that he was hired to succeed Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza as professor of painting at the School of Fine Arts, where he taught for a couple of years.