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At first Julio had tried to win renown with his brush, believing that it would prove an easy task.

In true artist fashion, he collected his friends around him, South American boys with nothing to do but enjoy life, scattering money ostentatiously so that everybody might know of their generosity.

With serene audacity, the young canvas-dauber undertook to paint portraits.

He loved good painting, "distinctive" painting, with the cloying sweetness of a romance, that copied only the forms of women.