Whilst visiting his mother's relatives in northern Italy with his family he contracted pneumonia, which in later years caused him to suffer from asthma.

At the age of 22, he began writing his autobiography, and in 1920 he wrote a booklet about his thoughts, in order to arrange and organize his life and work.

In 1921 the Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes accepted, for the first time, one of his pieces and later that year, following the recommendation of his doctor to live in a place with a drier climate, his employer agreed to relocate him to Desamparados in San Juan Province.

He then moved to Paris where he studied in the mornings at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and in the studio of the French painter, sculptor and writer André Lhote and came under the influence of post-cubism and the work of Paul Cézanne.

In 1945, together with Berni, Juan Carlos Castagnino, Manuel Colmeiro Guimarás and Demetrio Urruchúa, he was one of the contributors to the frescos which decorate the large central cupola of Galerías Pacífico on pedestrian Florida Street, Buenos Aires.