He had his first successful showing at the Exposition Universelle d'Anvers (1885). He remained in Belgium as a freelance painter and won a medal at the Seconde Exposition Internationale d'Anvers in 1894 for his painting of a wheatfield in Flanders. He married shortly thereafter, dividing his time between Paris and Barbizon; concentrating on landscapes and still-lifes after the style of the old Dutch Masters. That same painting received a gold medal at the Salon two years later.