1849-1916 He came from a poor family and in his youth worked as a silversmith, gilder, tile painter and hatter. This experience encouraged an independent spirit unencumbered by academic doctrine. He did, however, attend the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Valencia while working as a hatter, studying colour and composition, life drawing and drawing from the Antique (1868-9). In 1870 he started to devote himself wholly to painting. His early works include several portraits. A series of stays in Italy were important for Pinazo's development. The first of these took place in 1873, when he spent seven months visiting Rome, Naples and Venice and became familiar with the work of Mariano Jos? Bernardo Fortuny y Marsal, whose influence can be seen in Pinazo's small-scale landscapes on panel . Soon, however, his work came to resemble that of the impressionistic Italian painters, the Macchiaioli, as in Pinazo's brightly coloured Wheat-field. His second stay in Italy began in 1877 with an award for his large history painting, Landing of Francis I of France in Valencia