Born in Settimo nel Pisano on 29 June 1846, died in Florence on 4 January 1922. He was a pupil of Annibale Mariani at the Pisa Academy, and of Enrico Pollastrini at the Florentine Academy. Attracted by the "macchiaiuoli" movement, he left the academic method to follow the sympathetic and healthy side of it, without being overwhelmed by excesses. He was awarded in 1869 in Pistoia for the picture Carlo Emanuele di Savoia chases away the Spanish Ambassador. After this first success, aware of the need to continually renew himself without betraying his own nature, and after a period of indecision and transition, of which other paintings of his remain, such as L'Alfieri visiting Goldoni and Goldoni visiting Gian Giacorno Rousseau , found its way into the observation and passionate study of nature. His canvases, rich in pictorial resources, reproduce the most varied subjects: landscapes, figures, seascapes, portraits, genre paintings, treated by him with equal passion and skill. Of comfortable conditions, he worked especially for himself, never for the trade, rarely for exhibitions. After forty years of study and work, he felt the need for a definitive judgment on his art and, in 1914, in a hall of the Venice International Exhibition, he exhibited 53 works which the critics praised without reserve and on which Arduino Colasanti summed up the his judgment on the «Emporium», writing: «To renew oneself without betraying one's own nature, here is the secret of the greatness of many artists, and since Francesco Gioli adheres to this maxim not by calculation, but by the spontaneous virtue of his happy temperament, at every try the soul vibrates with a sincerity that gives the new work a new youth». His main works are: Angelus Domini, awarded in Parma in 1870; At the fields in June, which in London in 1885 had a silver medal and is now part of the Nistri collection; A meeting; Santa returns; Harvest; Volterra, purchased by the Municipality of Florence; Le lanaiole, purchased by the King and donated to the Gallery of Modern Art in Venice; The procession passes, in the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; At mass; The pawnshop; Mists; Spring; Mater Dolorosa; The woodcutters of San Rossore, exhibited with great success in Perugia in 1887; Sanders; The two brothers; Armonie fiorentine, noted at the 1909 Venetian International and purchased by the Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi; The meeting of the mules; The Holy Saturday procession in Pisa; Young mother; Winter Twilight, purchased from the Queen Mother. There are still many canvases by him scattered in public and private collections. His masterpiece is Passa il Viatico, which was awarded at the Paris International Exhibition in 1878. He was a man of simple, good, intimately proud soul.