Giuseppe Gianinni Pancetti, or José Pancetti, spent part of his life as a sailor, an experience that profoundly influenced his pictorial poetics. His seascapes, painted in the open air, became one of the most recurring themes in his work. Although Pancetti began painting in a self-taught manner, in 1933 he began practicing at the Núcleo Bernardelli, an open studio in Rio de Janeiro where he met Milton Dacosta, Bustamante Sá and Bruno Lechowski, who influenced his compositional thinking. In 1934, he traveled on the training ship Almirante Saldanha to England, Portugal, Spain and France, where he visited various museums.  

In the 1930s, the artist took part in salons and exhibitions, entering the artistic circuit of the time. His first solo exhibition took place at the Instituto dos Arquitetos de São Paulo (1945). The year he left the Navy, in 1946, he was given solo exhibitions at Galeria Itapetininga, in São Paulo, and at Galeria Montparnasse, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1955, the MAM Rio de Janeiro gave him a solo exhibition. His participation in group exhibitions includes: Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings, which traveled around institutions in the United Kingdom, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London (1944 and 1945); Arte del Brasil Moderno exhibition, which toured Buenos Aires, La Plata and Montevideo, Argentina (1945); 25th Venice Biennale (1950); and his participation in two editions of the Bienal de São Paulo (1951 and 1955). 

Pancetti’s work is part of important institutional collections, including MoMA, USA; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Brazil; MAM São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo – MAC USP, Brazil; Museu da Chácara do Céu, Brazil; MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Instituto Casa Roberto Marinho, Brazil.