His siblings, Jules, Léon, Paul Armand, Théodore and Julia Antonine (1851–1921), all became artists.

After learning engraving from his father, he studied at the École des Beaux-arts and in the studios of Jean-Léon Gérôme, who encouraged him to visit North Africa in 1874.

In all, he made eight trips to Algeria after 1879 (some with Jules and Léon), especially to the south, around the oases of Biskra, El Kantara and Bou Saâda, where he worked with Étienne Dinet.

[1] In 1898, he visited Egypt and Palestine, producing many works depicting the lives of desert nomads.

He exhibited regularly at the Salon and with the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français (of which he was one of the founding members), with major shows at the Exposition Universelle (1900), where he won a gold medal, and the Exposition Coloniale de Marseille of 1906.