In 1862, after finishing his primary education, he was apprenticed to an uncle, who taught him how to retouch photographs.

From 1865 to 1870, he studied at the Bucharest National University of Arts with Gheorghe Tattarescu and Theodor Aman.

[1] He was then able to obtain a scholarship and went to Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and found a position in the prestigious workshop of Alexandre Cabanel.

In 1873, he returned to Bucharest and became a teacher of drawing and calligraphy at the "Elena Doamna" orphan asylum.

[1] Four years later, on the recommendation of Doctor Carol Davila, he became a correspondent with the Army ambulance corps and participated in the Russo-Turkish War (War of Independence), sketching numerous scenes of campaigns and battles, many of which he later made into watercolors.