Upon turning 18, he went to Madrid, with a scholarship from the . There, he worked in the studios of Miguel Blay, one of Spain's best known sculptors at that time. Despite his good experiences with Blay, he decided to leave and undertake a journey throughout the country with his friend, the painter . Later, they would set up their own studio together. In 1908, he created his first major work, "María, la gitana" (Maria, the Gypsy); which expressed his own personality and broke with the prevailing popular styles.
