As a young man, he had traveled to France and studied painting in Paris for four years, with such portraitists as Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin.

He went to school in Saint-Roch, a suburb of Quebec City, after which he was apprenticed to Joseph Légaré (1795–1855), a picture restorer and amateur painter.

Paris had become unstable in the days of the July Revolution, which resulted in the downfall of the main Bourbon line and installation of Louis-Philippe of France as "King of the French".

Much of his work during this period continued to be religious paintings, copies of Old Masters, commissioned by local churches.

He broke with the Conservatives over their execution in 1885 of Louis Riel, a Métis who fought for the rights of his people in Canada.