His parents were Joseph Huvey, merchant, and Marie Antoinette Gerin-Roze, who collected incomes from properties she owned.

At the age of 17 he became a student at the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon in 1885, then he followed the courses of Poncet and Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris, where he lived until the end of his life.

In 1899 he composed the music for a pantomime play called Sommeil Blanc (White Sleep), written by Xavier Privas.

As a solo mime artist, Blanche Cavelli played at the Divan Japonais in the rue des Martyrs, Paris, on 31 March 1894.

Huvey formalized his common-law arrangement with Eugenie Chevallier by marrying her on 16 May 1905 at the City Hall of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, where they lived at 15 rue Hégésippe-Moreau.