Giacomo Favretto was born in Venice on 11th August in 1849. Born to a poor family, in 1864, thanks to the help of several benefactors he was able to enrol in the Venice Academy of Fine Arts where he immediately stood out and received various prizes and awards. His first success was at the Brera Exhibition in 1873 where Una Lezione Anatomica [A Lesson in Anatomy] was appreciated by artists and purchased for the local Picture Gallery. He continued to take part in exhibitions and in 1878, once again in the Brera, presented Il Socio that immediately made him extremely popular. In the same year he visited the Paris Exhibition, in which he took part with two paintings. It was in 1880 that he finally made his name: the paintings he sent to the Turin Exhibition met with resounding success with both the public and critics, and his work Vandalism, on display at the Brera, won the prestigious Principe Umberto prize. At the 1883 Rome Exhibition his Mercato del Sabato in Campo S. Polo [Saturday Market in Campo S. Polo] was purchased by the King and the paintings he presented at Turin the following year also met with great success. In 1887 he took part in the Venice National Exhibition with highly dedicated works that were praised by critics and immediately sold. At the age of just 38, during the Exhibition he was struck by typhoid fever and died.