Antonio Gualdi was an Italian painter who studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Parma from 1814. During his studies, he won numerous prizes from the academy, including for nude painting and figure drawing. Gualdi was supported by the Duchess  Maria Luigia of Parma, which enabled him to study in Florence in the early 1820s and in Rome from 1824 to 1826. Besides religious works and genre scenes, which Gualdi had already executed in Parma, he devoted himself for the first time to portrait painting in Rome. After the death of his father, Gualdi returned to his home town Guastalla in Emilia-Romagna in 1826. In Guastalla, he received numerous commissions for portraits and altarpieces. In 1836, Gualdi settled in Milan and regularly took part in the exhibition of the Accademia di Brera. In Milan, Gualdi quickly came into contact with patrons and collectors. Apart from portraits and genre scenes, he mainly received commissions for histories, which he painted in the Romantic style. In 1857, he returned to his home town because of eye problems that made painting difficult for him; two years later he was appointed honorary professor at the art academy in Modena.