Achille D'Orsi (1845-1929) was the founder of the influential Neapolitan movement of socio-realism in sculpture. He made minutely realistic studies of peasants and sailors, as socio-economic records. For this reason, many of his works were met with affronted hostility by the general public of the time.
The fine series of heads of fisherfolk and peasants was more poetic and was a graceful precursor to Gemito's celebrated works. The present rare model of a sailor Il Marinaio dating from 1878 exists in slightly varying casts. One version is in the Galleria d'arte Moderna in Milan and another is illustrated in Sapori (op. cit.).