Andrés de Santa Maria married Amalia Bidwell Hurtado on January 25, 1893, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. They had eight children. In 1894, the couple decided to come back to Colombia, where they lived for almost two decades. Shortly after arriving at Bogotá, Santa Maria was appointed professor of landscape at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (English: The National Academy of Fine Arts), where he brought the experience he had learned in France. However, his work as a vanguardist artist breaking with the traditional academic painting in Colombia was controversial.