Gnoli was born in Rome in 1933. He studied in that city’s Accademia delle Belle Arti and also studied with the graphic artist Carlo Alberto Petrucci. His first exhibition, again in Rome, was in 1950. Gnoli first achieved renown as a theatre designer—the scenery and costumes he designed for a production of the Merchant of Venice in Zürich in 1953 led to a commission to do the same for an As You Like It in London, which was eventually staged in 1955. From 1956, however, Gnoli chose to devote his efforts to painting and illustration.

Numerous exhibitions and commissions followed, and Gnoli travelled a great deal, variously living in Paris, New York and London. In 1962, a fairy-tale he had written and illustrated was published—in English—as ‘Orestes, or, the Art of Smiling.’ By 1968, his work was in great demand in the US, with commissions that year from, among others, Sports Illustrated and Fortune. He died in New York in 1970.

PS: Традиционно напоминаю, что альтернативный рейтинг лиру находится  ТАМ .