In the late nineteenth century, he was one of the first generation Spanish expressionist painters from the School of Paris, where he lived most of his life.

There he met Joseph Bernard, his friend Amedeo Modigliani and his future wife, the French sculptor, Hortense Begué.

[4][5] The outbreak of the First World War had a deep impact, in the life and work of Celso Lagar, the beginning of a new stage.

With the commencement of the Second World War and the end of the golden age both Lagar and his wife Hortense were forced to take status of refuge in the French Pyrenees amid very difficult living conditions.

During this time, by court order, two auctions of the works which had been remaining in his workshop were held to pay for his stay in the asylum.