He began his artistic studies at the "Akademia Stanowa" with Jan Maszkowski from 1842 to 1844, later attending the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1847 to 1848, where he studied with Ferdinand Waldmüller; the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich from 1849 to 1852, where his teacher was Wilhelm Kaulbach; and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts from 1854 to 1860, under Ary Scheffer and Léon Cogniet.

[1] In 1852, together with Galician separatist Adam Józef Potocki, his wife, and the journalist Maurycy Mann [pl], Tepa took a trip through Greece, Egypt and Palestine which resulted in some of the first examples of Polish Orientalism.

[1] Upon his return from Paris in 1860, he settled permanently in Lwów, where he produced studies of the local folk-life and landscapes on behalf of Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki, a founder of the "State Museum of Natural History".

During this time, he was offered a Professorship at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, but refused because of his desire to remain in Lwów.

Many of his works remained in Lwów (Lviv) when the area passed to Ukrainian control after World War II.