Born into a well-off family, Francesco Gioli studied at the Accademia di Pisa with Annibale Mariani. Later he enrolled in Antonio Ciseri and Enrico Pollastrini's courses in Florence. His early career was devoted to history and genre painting; at Florence he presented Carlo Emanuele di Savoia che scaccia l'ambasciatore spagnolo (Carlo Emanuele of Savoy dismisses the Spanish Ambassador) paintings, a series of small paintings inspired by the works of Goldoni.

Following the meeting with Signorini and Fattori in Florence, he began to study landscape painting and a touch of naturalism emerges in his work. This became more apparent with his frequent trips to Paris, such as the one in 1875 with Fa...