[3] Although his family was not wealthy, they were politically connected (his uncle, Manoel Rodrigues Villares (1804-1878), served as a Minister of the Supreme Federal Court), so he was able to gain entrance to the Colégio Pedro II and the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes.

In 1870, he began providing caricatures for the satirical magazine, Comédia Social, published by Américo and his younger brother, Aurélio de Figueiredo [pt], who was also a student there at that time.

In 1874, he was awarded a gold medal at the Salon for his painting of Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini, which was praised by the notoriously difficult-to-please art critic, Eugène Verón [fr].

Soon after, he and Aurélio de Figueiredo received a major commission: eighteen paintings of the Aimoré people for display at the Brazilian Anthropological Exhibition of 1882; made from sketches and photographs.

[5] In 1887, he and José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior were chosen to replace Victor Meirelles in the history painting department at the Academia Imperial, but they never did.

Although he has often received little credit, he participated in the creation of the Brazilian flag, conceived by Raimundo Teixeira Mendes (a member of the Positivist Church); helping to design the blue disc and the placement of the words "Ordem e Progresso".

[8] He may have served as the inspiration for Julião Vilela, a character in Mocidade Morta, a novel by the art critic, Gonzaga Duque, who felt that Villares made poor aesthetic choices and never lived up to his potential.