The son, grandson and great-grandson of painters, Raffaelle Mainella was trained at the Istituto di Belle Arti in Naples before transferring to the Accademia in Venice. Early in his career Mainella worked mainly as a painter in oils, with a particular preference was for views of Venice and its surroundings. But after a few years he decided to devote himself to watercolour, a medium in which he was highly regarded by his contemporaries.

Although best known for his watercolour views of the Venetian lagoon, Mainella also produced a number of watercolours of Orientalist subjects. He travelled to Egypt in 1887 with the Swiss writer Baron von Gonzenbach, and his drawings were later used to illustrate Gonzenbach’s book Nihlfahrt.

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