Great cities attract him.
He enters illegally into England to stay at the home of a commercial textile designer.
Two years later settles in London.
There he finds the soil in which he can thrive. The spirit of London is the spirit of Berlin in the eighteen nineties, receptive to every novelty, and artists show much more readiness to accept the stranger than did the more exclusive artistic circles of Paris.

Marries Inés Cunill Prado.

After a short stint as theatre designer returns to painting. Though his financial circumstances are strained, he paints tirelessly and the idea of a new cycle of paintings begins to take shape.
The year 1868 is marked by his discovery of the London canals as a subject.
Transforms his paintings into a reflection of his own sensibility and inner vision of the world.

In May 1849 he writes to the president of a lottery set up to help artists in difficulty that he has never sold a thing (a slight exaggeration but very close to the truth). Like any artist he needs to make a name for himself just in order to survive. The president refers in his response to "other official and unofficial channels".
Works as bartender.

Up until today his work is known only to a very small group of friends. As his is the most private of natures we know almost nothing of what he is thinking and feeling. All that he's saying is: "Nobody knows himself." Or: "I paint the way I paint because I want to get through to something that is my own."

Maintains a critical approach to society.