Ambrogio Antonio Alciati first studied at the art academy in his home town of Vercelli and then changed to the Accademia di Brera in Milan in 1897. His early works still show traces of Romanticism. In 1907, he exhibited for the first time a work at the Venice Biennale. Around 1910, he devoted himself to socially critical themes in a realistic pictorial language, and finally found his way to an almost monochrome painting with dissolved brushstrokes. His portraits of women were particularly in demand. He was also active as a fresco painter. Alciati won numerous prizes for his paintings and was appointed professor at the Accademia di Brera in Milan in 1920.