His great-grandfather, Don Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol, had his portrait painted by Francisco de Goya in 1805.
He studied at the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris; then at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, where his primary instructor was Tony Robert-Fleury.
He was a frequent traveler to North Africa, where he made the acquaintance of the sculptor, Georges Hilbert.
Two years later, he provided illustrations for Au soleil, a travel book by Guy de Maupassant.
He also illustrated two works by Jean and Jérôme Tharaud; Marrakech ou les seigneurs de l’Atlas (1924), with engravings by François-Louis Schmied, and L'An prochain à Jérusalem (1929), engraved by Georges Beltrand [fr].