His watercolours and some of his oils reflect the influence of the Hague School which, starting in the 1870s, created moody landscapes in almost monochromatic hues.

He lived in Paris with a studio at Puteaux for five years, and during that time he made the primary subject of his paintings the sea and its ships.

[4] In 1892, he was diagnosed as mentally ill with schizophrenia and was admitted to the Protestant Hospital for the Insane in Verdun, Montreal where he remained the rest of his life.

[6] He never painted again, but his Montreal dealer, W. Scott and Sons Galleries along with his mother, promoted his work and placed it to advantage in exhibitions such as those of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and sold it to institutions such as the National Gallery of Canada and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where it remains today.

Lord also wrote an article in the National Gallery of Canada Bulletin about his discovery of Barnsley sketches in the collection.