He focused primarily on the western suburbs of Paris, painting outdoors in the plein-air tradition; his style ranging between Post-Impressionism and Realism with a strong Naturalist component.

His teachers included Léon Tanzi (1846–1913), an esteemed Realist painter, and Alexandre Nozal (1852–1929) a respected landscape artist that perambulated from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism.

This, in addition to the lessons at l'Académie Julian with William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jules Joseph Lefebvre,[2][3] would ultimately propel Henri Biva to the fore as a career artist.

Shortly thereafter, during the latter half of the 1870s, Henri Biva began showing his works in the Parisian salon's, while enjoying sufficient commercial success to make his living.

Equally important in the nineteenth-century marketplace, this type of landscape painting offered an intimate glimpse of a specific locale, a reminder of days spent in the French countryside, or perhaps at the immense forest preserves surrounding Paris.

"[4]With his style ranging between Post-Impressionism and Realism, with a pronounced Naturalist temperament—visible in Villeneuve-l'étang (soir)[6] and Après le coucher du soleil[7]—the paintings of Henri Biva gained in popularity amongst private collectors and public institutions.

"Although Biva's career seems to have flourished during the 1880s," writes Janet Whitmore, "he received particular acclaim in the 1890s beginning with his first honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1892 when his work as a painter of landscapes and flowers was especially noted.