Born in Salerno, Italy in 1905, Salvatore Pinto immigrated with his family to America in 1909. He attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and worked in many media including painting, printmaking, photography, theatrical and furniture design. Pinto, along with his brothers Biago and Angelo, was greatly favored and collected by Albert C. Barnes, founder of the Barnes Foundation.