A student at the Llotja school from the age of twelve, Simó and his brother Enric moved to Paris in 1863, the same year from which this self-portrait dates. There he enrolled at the École Imperiale, where he was a disciple of Thomas Couture, and worked in the workshops of Alexandre Cabanel and Robert Fleury. In 1865 he returned to Barcelona and, from then on, he developed a remarkable career as a painter and engraver.