Initially, he attended the Académie Julian, but finally managed to enroll at the École des Beaux-arts in 1880, where he received the guidance of Alexandre Cabanel, Paul Baudry and Puvis de Chavannes.

[2] On his return to Rio de Janeiro in 1888, he was appointed an Honorary Professor as the Academia, but actually taught at the Escola Politécnica and held his first personal exhibition.

He later became a Professor at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA), where he encouraged students to research the various process of painting (tempera, encaustic, watercolor etc.).

[1] In addition to his canvases, he painted panels for the Supremo Tribunal Federal in 1909, the Biblioteca Nacional and the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro in 1916.

Among his best-known students were the brothers Arthur and João Timóteo da Costa, Lucílio de Albuquerque, Eliseu Visconti and Cândido Portinari.