Cristóbal Rojas Poleo was born in the city of Cúa in the Valles del Tuy to parents who worked in the medical profession.

As a result, he moved to Caracas where he continued his painting studies, despite again having to work in the tobacco industry to support his mother and family.

[2] Melancholic, and with an uncertain temperament, Rojas was inspired by examples of artwork he discovered on his continuous visits to the Louvre.

[1] He was forced to return to Venezuela in 1890, bringing with himself his last paintings, a portrait of President Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl and The Purgatorio, a depiction of purgatory (both 1890).

Journalist Ermelindo Rivodó who visited Rojas in Paris in 1885, described the painter as "Somewhat pale, with small moustache and black hair, that emphasize his smooth set of melancholic eyes".

Jose Antonio Hedderich, in an interesting article published in the National Magazine of Culture, after studying the life of Rojas described him; "He was of a shy character, that one was aware of the distance that existed between him and those who surrounded to him.