Signorini belonged to the circle of young artists that gathered regularly at Caffé Michelangelo in Florence. Along with Giovanni Fattori and Silvestro Lega, he was one of the leading exponents of the Macchiaioli, the Italian variant of the French en plein air painters. Signorini was a passionate free spirit, who spent most of his life wandering in Italy and Europe. He frequently travelled to Paris and London, to exhibit and sell his works, at the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery in London, and through the dealers Goupil and Reitlinger in Paris. In Paris Signorini met Corot and Courbet, he came into contact with Boldini and De Nittis and became interested in the work of Manet and Degas. Like the French masters he was fascinated  by the expressive potential of printmaking and experimented with new printing techniques.