He was born in 1903 in Arequipa, Peru, son of Germans, came to Brazil, where he became naturalized. A self-taught designer, he started working in Recife and later in Rio de Janeiro, where he studied engraving with Carlos Oswald.

 

He was one of the founders of the "Modern Art Movement of Recife" and in 1932 he set up an atelier with Augusto Rodrigues.

 

He received a silver medal in 1938 in the Official Hall, in 1943 by the National Museum of Fine Arts, in 1963, conferred by the Brazilian chamber of the Book, as the best illustrator of the year and in 1953, in the 2nd National Salon of Modern Art in Rio de January.

 

In 1963 he was awarded as best illustrator by the Brazilian Chamber of Books. He received the Jabuti Prize in 1964 for the illustrations of the work Santa Maria do Belém, Grão Pará and in 1970, received a gold medal by A.S.C.B.

 

His artistic work is highly consecrated by critics, with great precision being attributed to the details of his dotted illustrations and the enormous aesthetic sensibility expressed in his watercolor drawings.

 

During his artistic life he illustrated what he loved most, Brazil. Whether by the detailed representation of the various traditional regional types, such as the rubber tapper, the baianas, the muxuango, pirarucu fishing; and immersion in Brazilian natural landscapes.