Giuseppe Giannini Pancetti

José Pancetti was a Brazilian painter who was born in 1902 to a family of Italian immigrants in Campinas, São Paulo. He moved to Italy with his sister when he was 10 years old, where he lived with his uncle and grandparents. He learned the craft of a carpenter and later became a sailor in the Italian merchant navy. He returned to Brazil in 1920 and worked as a painter of walls and posters. In 1922, he enlisted in the Brazilian Navy, where he remained for 24 years. He discovered his passion for painting and began to draw and paint postcards with landscapes, seascapes and romantic scenes. He participated in several exhibitions and became one of the most prominent modernist painters in Brazil. He specialized in painting seascapes and landscapes, capturing the light and colors of the Brazilian coast and countryside. He also painted still life, portraits and figures. He was influenced by impressionism, expressionism and cubism, but developed his own style and technique. He suffered from tuberculosis and spent some time in the spa cities of Campos do Jordão and São João del Rei, seeking a cure. He died in 1958 in Rio de Janeiro, leaving behind a legacy of more than 400 paintings. He is considered one of the greatest Brazilian painters of the 20th century.