[1] In 1879, he moved to Paris with a scholarship to study at the École des Beaux-arts; living in the Latin Quarter and obtaining a position in the studios of Alexandre Cabanel.

While in France, he met Marie Huybers (the sister of novelist Jessie Couvreur) and married her, even though marriage violated the terms of his scholarship.

He became a "Professor of Design" at the Presbyterian Ladies Academy, sat on several art juries and was named Inspector for the National Gallery of Victoria.

[1] After Marie's death in 1901, he returned to Porto, where he established a studio at the "Crystal Palace" (an exhibition hall modelled after the one in London).

The Soares dos Reis National Museum houses his Retrato de senhora, a portrait of a lady dressed in black (as well as Rio Douro (1906) by his pupil Manuel Maria Lúcio, 1865-1943) Manuel Maria Lúcio (1865-1943), a landscape painter, was his favorite pupil.