He was enrolled at the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes (AIBA) from 1879 to 1884, where he became a student of the German landscape painter Georg Grimm.

[1] When Grimm staged a protest against the Academy's teaching methods, García joined him and several other students (including Giovanni Battista Castagneto, Antônio Parreiras and Hipólito Boaventura Caron) in leaving the Academy to establish their own school in Niterói, where they painted plein-air and came to be known as the "Grupo Grimm".

[2] After the Grupo Grimm broke up, he went to France, where he studied with Hector Hanoteau and Henri-Joseph Harpignies from 1885 to 1888.

For much of the nineties, he gave up painting altogether, and spent his time taking long walks along the beach or fishing to earn a little money.

Four years later, he made a long tour of the Serra da Estrela, in Teresópolis, producing several major works for display at the Exposição in 1906.