Ermocrate Bucchi was born in Urbino in 1842. Of modest economic conditions, as a young man he worked in a grocery store, and was then launched on an ecclesiastical career. In him, however, there was a strong artistic vocation that led him to enroll at the Brera Academy; in order to continue his studies, in the meantime he worked as an ivory engraver. At the Institute he became a pupil of the painter Luigi Scrosati (1814 - 1869), an important watercolourist and the author of various fresco cycles, some of which are at the Palazzo Poldi-Pezzoli. Under the guidance of Scrosati he began to paint still lifes of flowers, with such mastery and elegance that he earned the praise of his contemporaries, as demonstrated by the chronicle of the time on the occasion of the painter's participation in the Brera Art Exhibition of 1881. On that occasion, the art dealer Goupil, struck by his talent, sent his best watercolours of flowers to Holland; the Dutch market welcomed Bucchi with enthusiasm, guaranteeing him fame throughout Northern Europe and even a certain amount of wealth. He died in Milan in 1885; some of his works are currently preserved at the Musée d'Orsay and in private collections.