He studied humanities and philosophy at the Council Seminary in Barcelona. He started out by contributing articles of literary and artistic criticism to the magazine L'Avenç and later the newspapers La Vanguardia and La Veu de Catalunya. He was one of the first, together with the painters S. Rusiñol and R. Casas, to theorise the ideas of Modernisme. In 1901 he wrote the novel Els sots feréstecs (The Wild Ravines), which is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Modernista literature.

He combined his activity as a writer with that of contributor to various publications such as the magazines Hispania and L'Esquella de la Torratxa, and the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya.

His art criticism helped to bring many Modernista artists to public attention.