He began his career in the Netherlands, painting harbour scenes, and in 1899 he settled in Montmartre, where he made his living by providing drawings for satirical journals. When he turned to painting, his originality was soon realised by critics and the public, who linked him with the Fauves and some elements of German Expressionism. By the 1920s he reached the apex of his fame, primarily as a portrait painter of fashionable society.