Michele Catti (5 April 1855 – 4 July 1914) was an Italian artist, considered one of the most important Sicilian landscape painters of the Belle Époque.

[3][4][5] Andrea, who had relocated to the town of Carini, wanted his son to also start legal studies in Palermo, and was sent him there to live with to his aunt, Sabina Distefano.

[6] His father's cousin Luigi Natoli, who would become famous himself as a writer under the pseudonym William Galt and also an important patron for Michele in this period.

[9] The young Michele Catti, brilliant and extrovert, gained the esteem of the painter Francesco Lojacono, the foremost Sicilian landscape artist in this period, who took him in as a pupil.

He immediately hit it off with him, and enthusiastic about the many Japanese components he had introduced in his art, they planned to open a school together, but the sad economic situation and the precarious state of his health prevented this.

[3][4] After 1885, Catti abandoned his realistic approach, to an impressionism possibly inspired by the works of Antonio Leto, characterized by a wide and sparse brushstroke.

Apart from Kremp he had many noble Palermitan friends who appreciated him, besides his artistic talent, for his remarkable qualities: he was, in fact, a brilliant, generous and pleasant man in gatherings.

Catti exhibited in Palermo and also outside the island, but he had little contact with artists from other regions, although his works include typical techniques and manners of the Tuscan Macchiaioli painters and the Impressionists themselves.

Meeting and befriending painter Giuseppe De Nittis was therefore important to Catti, as he could talk of his French experiences and the local art movements.

[7][5] His most mature works, characterized by a smooth brushstroke and a robust and vibrant style, are from the early twentieth-century: he appreciated sad autumn atmospheres, gray skies, and cold windy days, which he portrayed with dim and melancholic tones.

In 1911 he was awarded the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Rome for the picture Ultime foglie (Il viale della Libertà in una giornata di pioggia) of 1906.