Cesare Dell'Acqua was an Italian painter and illustrator who was born in today’s Slovenia and grew up in Trieste. He studied at the Venice Academy of Art from 1842 to 1847. Early in his career, he already worked for aristocratic commissioners. In 1844, Dell'Acqua was employed as a reporter for the shipping company Österreichischer Lloyd and documented the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph I to Trieste in sixteen lithographs. Having finished his studies, he accompanied his patron, the Hungarian Baron Ludovico Reszan, on a trip to Vienna, Munich and Paris. From 1848, Dell'Acqua lived in Brussels with his brother and specialised in history painting. In 1857, one of his large-format history paintings was awarded a prize at the Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Between 1852 and 1877, he produced numerous paintings for ecclesiastical and public institutions as well as for important personalities in Trieste. Dell'Acqua participated at Universal Exhibitions in Vienna and London with his history paintings, followed by exhibitions in the USA and Australia in the 1880s. He received numerous Belgian and Italian awards. Many of his paintings, but also many watercolours, drawings and illustrations still are to be seen mainly in museums in Italy and Belgium.