Born in Brittany, France, he watched Corot paint as a boy and later came under the influence of this artist. He studied black and white in Paris under Jakob Smits, and painting at Antwerp under Verheyden. He became an admirer of French Impressionism and in his own work strove for poetical expression. He came to Canada first in 1884. He become an art director for a Canadian publishing firm which later failed. He took ill and while convalescing was married at Brandford.
He travelled with his wife to Belgium in 1904 where he painted and studied. His watercolours received praise from King Leopold of Belgium. He was a member of the Society of Water Colour Painters of Belgium. He returned to Canada and become Principal of the Victoria School of Art and Design, Halifax, a post he held from 1912 to 1916. His work was exhibited at the Walter House, Kitchener, in 1925, when the Kitchener-Waterloo Record noted, “. . . His tragic trees, his inimitable skies, his Canadian pastorals and his vigorous seas are epic in the interpretation.”
He also exhibited in Ottawa in April of 1930 at James Wilson and Company and elsewhere. He was a founding member of the Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, and a member of the Ontario Society of Artists. He is represented in the National Gallery of Canada by a watercolour of a windmill. He painted at Meadowville, Ontario; Isle of Orleans; Nova Scotia; Holland, Belgium and France. He died at Meadowville.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
