Born into a well-to-do family, he received a good academic education and often travelled all over Europe.

His policy of intellectual modernisation of the country was heavily influenced by the ideology of Valentí Almirall. In 1881 he was one of the founders of the magazine L'Avenç, a publication that came to represent the Modernista movement, and he was also responsible, together with Joaquim Casas, cousin of the painter R. Casas, for setting up the publishing house of the same name.

He participated in the Catalan nationalist movements of the time and was a member of the committee of the First International Congress of the Catalan Language in 1906, and one of the founders of the Institute of Catalan Studies - of which he became the chairperson -, the Ateneu Barcelonès (Barcelona Athenaeum) and the Ramblers' Centre of Catalonia.

As a writer he published various stories and poems, and his memoirs, Cinquanta anys de vida literària (Fifty Years of Literary Life, 1934).