 After attending some preparatory academies, including G. W. C. Noble's school in Boston, he studied law at Harvard University where, in 1876, he was a member of Hasty Pudding Club and one of the co-founders of "The Harvard Lampoon".Upon graduating, he convinced his parents to let him study art.He began at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied with Gustave Boulanger, Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and the history painter, Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury.