He later attended the École Normale Laval de Québec. In 1874, he moved to Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux-arts and studied in the workshop of Alexandre Cabanel.
Having demonstrated a talent for drawing at an early age, he was enrolled in the Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière when he was only ten. The local Abbé was impressed with his talents and set up a subscription committee to raise funds for him to study in Europe. Back in Québec, his career truly began when he received that commission to decorate the Church of the Holy Savior in 1887.
He returned to Canada in 1904, alone.
(Details for this period in his life are rather sketchy) The following year, he rejoined his family in Brussels and lived in Saint-Malo, France. The Parliament Building
In 1910, he was selected by a committee (consisting of Thomas Chapais, Eugène-Étienne Taché and Ernest Myrand) to compose two large historical paintings for the Parliament Building ("Sovereign Council" and the "Debate on Languages"), executed between 1910 and 1913, with an occasional break to do research.
This produced another commission for a painting on the theme Je me souviens (Québec"s motto) for the building"s ceiling. lieutenant would take him another seven years to prepare and finish this work.
At the time of his death, he was engaged in another large commission for the building, that had to be completed by his students.
Among his illustrations are those for L"Art d"être grand-père by Victor Hugo.