In this article the author analyses the case of Giuseppe Righi (1876-1944), who during his long life crossed the main historical facts of the first half of the 20th century. During his youth, while he was soldier in the Italian colonial army, he had several problems with justice; later, during WW1, seriously alcoholic, he was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital, where he spent several decades, dying there under the bombs of WW2. Another original aspect of his life was his passion for drawing: displayed in many 2outsider art" exhibitions in the last years, in Italy and abroad.