Silvestro Lega (1826–1895) was born on 8 December 1826 in Modigliana, in Romagna, into a well-off family. At seventeen he moved to Florence to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, but he was soon disappointed by its teaching. He found his true direction among the Macchiaioli, the Tuscan painters who built their pictures from patches of light and colour, and he is counted with Giovanni Fattori and Telemaco Signorini among the leading figures of the group.
His best years were spent at Piagentina, then a quiet stretch of countryside on the edge of Florence, where the Macchiaioli painted from life. There he was welcomed by the Batelli family and later married their eldest daughter, Virginia. His most famous work, The Trellis (Il pergolato, 1868), now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, is a scene of intimate calm from these years. He also painted patriotic subjects, among them a portrait of Garibaldi in 1861 and Sharpshooters Leading Austrian Prisoners, now in Florence.
Lega died in Florence on 21 September 1895, of stomach cancer, and by most accounts in poverty. He is buried in his native Modigliana, where the town’s art gallery bears his name.