An Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterised by elongation of faces and figures, that were not received well during his lifetime but later found acceptance. He spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance, until he moved to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuşi. After discovering narcotics, he developed the philosophical belief that the only path to creativity was through defiance of social norms and disorder in life. Thus began a lifelong affliction with corrupted beauty, which would ultimately end with his untimely death at the age of 35 of tubercular meningitis and the suicide of his grief-stricken wife and their unborn child.

His work is largely paintings and drawings, but from 1909 to 1914 he devoted himself mainly to sculpture. His main subject was portraits and full figures of humans, both in the images and in the sculptures. He had little success during his life, but after his death he achieved greater popularity and his works of art achieved high prices.