Ernesto Rayper

In 1859, after receiving his basic education at a Piarist school and the Collegio dei Tolomei in Siena, he enrolled in courses at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti and took lessons from Tammar Luxoro.

The following year, he began promoting the concept of plein aire painting and the Scuola grigia, so-named for Rayper's avoidance of the color black, took shape.

[1] Over the next few years, he was joined by Alfredo d'Andrade [it], a Portuguese immigrant who was also an archaeologist, Alberto Issel and Serafín Avendaño, a Galician painter living in Genoa.

[1] In 1870, he was named a "Professor of Merit" at the Accademia Ligustica and won a gold medal at the "Esposizione Nazionale di Parma".

After travelling throughout Italy, seeking an effective treatment, he retired to a small town in Savona and died there, aged only thirty-three.