Renato Guttuso was born in Bagheria, in the province of Palermo, in 1912. Son of an agronomist with liberal ideas, from his earliest youth he loved painting which he explored by frequenting in his hometown the studio of the naturalist painter Domenico Quattrociocchi and the workshop of the decorator Emilio Murdolo. In Palermo, instead, where he studied at high school, he frequented the studio of the painter Pippo Rizzo. He made his debut in 1928 at the Sicilian Mostra Sindacale. After his high school diploma in the classics, 1930, he enrolled at the law faculty but soon abandoned it in order to devote himself completely to painting.