His father, Davide Detti, was an engineer and an amateur painter. As a result, his early interest in art was encouraged. In 1861, he made the acquaintance of Francesco Coghetti, a painter from Rome who was creating murals at the Teatro Nuovo (now known as the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti [it]). Coghetti suggested that Detti receive formal training at the Accademia di San Luca, where he was a professor.[1] Detti studied there until 1866 and came under the influence of Marià Fortuny, who introduced him to the work of the Macchiaioli.
Upon graduating, he began to travel extensively, spending several years in Naples and exhibiting there in 1872. Although he had originally decided to settle in Rome, he visited Paris in 1876 and met Adolphe Goupil, one of the leading art dealers of his time. Not only did Goupil agree to exhibit his works, he also arranged to make them into engravings for his bourgeois customers.