Against his parents wishes, he began his artistic studies at the
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos with
Francisco Domingo Marqués and
Joaquín Agrasot. He then went to Madrid and was an assistant in the workshop of
Joaquín Sorolla from 1893 to 1904. He was a frequent participant at the
National Exhibition of Fine Arts, where he took honorable mention in 1892 and 1897 and won a medal in 1904 for his painting,
On Rice. With his support, Vila went to Argentina, where he painted landscapes and
genre scenes on the
pampas. He returned to Europe in 1906, spending some time in Brittany, then visiting Madrid, where he made drawings at the wedding of King
Alfonso XIII. In 1908, following the death of his mother, he went back to Buenos Aires and married José (soon to be "Count") Artal's daughter, Carmen, who was fifteen years his junior. Over the next few years, he travelled throughout Argentina, receiving several commissions for decorative works, including the ceiling at the
Tigre Club, and murals at the
Plaza Hotel and the
Tucumán Government Palace. In 1928, he moved his workshop to Barcelona, so his wife could be closer to her family. That same year, the Peruvian government awarded him the
Order of the Sun, although the mural that had been commissioned would remain unfinished at his death, two years later. ==Selected paintings==