Nephew of the painter Mauro, born in Milan on May 30, 1852, who died there on January 23, 1917. He studied at the Brera Academy and the Higher Technical Institute, also obtaining a diploma as an architect. He then devoted himself to painting, first becoming acquainted with his etchings, including that of the courtyard of Palazzo Marino which was exhibited in 1877 at the Paris Salon. He was a friend of Cremona and Ranzoni, and began to paint close to them, even spiritually: in fact, his first work, Ragazzi in giardino (1879), is clearly Cremonian. Around 1880, with the etchings of the Magician's House, with the painting The Witches, and others similar, he revealed himself to be a personal, imaginative and mysterious painter. But even this in his painting was only a moment. Always anxious as he was for new experiences and new conquests, he came to create, especially in the last years of his life, works that were sometimes all shadow and mystery (The Nocturnes), sometimes lost in a calm and pure clarity. His first important exhibition was that held in Brera in 1880, in which among other works (the portraits of the Pozza lords; A head; Air and sun; Shadow; Light; Rain; etc.) featured the painting The witches, which scandalized public and critics. He participated several times, often winning, in Italian and foreign exhibitions. In 1900 he got a prize in Paris; in 1891 he exhibited in Munich, where, in 1913, his picture Serene Night was awarded the gold medal. Among his most important works are mentioned: Intermezzo (1886); The magician's road (1890); The throne of the beautiful Mantesca (1891); and the other paintings of this unfinished cycle, entitled Fairy tales and legends; and then: The death of the child; Maternal love; Midnight Variations (1909), one of which is at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome; Madonnina; Female nude (watercolor); Meeting of Jesus with the pious women (1903); Danaide (1891), all at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan; Lago di Varese (1910) in a Milanese private collection; Portraits of the Gallina family; Landscapes, miniatures and watercolors in the Turri collection in Milan; The Bather (1903); Fausto and Margherita (1912); The Breath of the Night (1914); On the ramparts of Manforte (1915); and many portraits including those of Tulio Massarani (1905-1906); of Mrs. Torelli; of Signora Valdata; by Primo Levi; by dr. Carlo Carpentari (the last two in the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan). There are countless caricatures of him scattered everywhere, especially in the «Guerin Meschino».