A prominent figure, together with Boldini, of the Parisian scene of the late nineteenth century, during his career, De Nittis was first an avant-garde interpreter of the realist school of southern Italy, to then fully enter the team of Parisian innovators with the who shared an interest in photography and Japanese art, languages that profoundly influenced his research.

A virtuoso landscape painter in translating the dazzling light effects of his hometown such as the misty skies of the Ile de France, or the London mists, he was adept at portraying a rapidly changing world and society by stopping his pictorial focus on changing cities. , on the life of the boulevards and on the places of worldliness and free time. Moving to the French capital in 1868, De Nittis immediately came into contact with the clientele of the great collectors and merchants, establishing at the same time fundamental and profitable relationships with his French colleagues including Degas, Caillebotte, Manet and Monet. With his art he has contributed to renewing the codes of painting through a refined language of great visual charm, capable of making the demands of modernity his own without renouncing the affirmation of a personal figure that has its roots in youthful experiences and is nourished of the accomplice intimacy with his wife Leontine, his "manager", as well as his favorite model.