The son of a wealthy businessman and collector, Piero Marussig lived in Vienna and Monaco, between 1899 and 1901,  where he approached the Viennese Secession and became familiar with the Central European expressionistic tendencies. He then lived in Rome for two years (1903-5) and spent a year in Paris (1905), where he studied Post-Impressionism and Fauvism. On his return to Italy in 1906 he lived in Trieste and, until about 1919, painted in a loosely expressionistic style. About 1920 he decided to move to Milan where he met Carra, Sironi and Funi. In Milan Marussig was among the founders of the group Novecento, along with painters Anselmo Bucci, Leonardo Dudreville, Achille Funi, Emilio Malerba, Mario Sironi and Ubaldo Oppi. His paintings of this period reflect the tendency of the group to a recovery of the Renaissance painting tradition.