Franco Francese first trained at the Umanitaria courses, where he met Alfredo Chighine, and from 1936 at the Brera Art School under the guidance of Angelo Del Bon. After the interruption of the war at the Brera, he studied sculpture with Giacomo Manzù.
Since the 1930s he began drawing and this activity constantly and intensely underpinned painting. Since the 1950s he has contributed to the cultural and artistic debate despite living in a state of isolation and eccentricity, in a biographical attitude of intolerance.
He participates in the main public exhibitions, from the Venice Biennials to the Rome Quadrennials.
His artistic activity was accompanied by widespread critical attention and the esteem of poets and writers such as Dante Isella, Giovanni Testori, Vittorio Sereni and Giovanni Raboni.