With his sculptures Rosso fought against monumental sculpture, beginning with his first works La Ruffiana, Gavroche, Lovers Under the Lamplight, Carne Altrui, The Concierge.
Since his family moved from Turin, where he was born in 1858, to Milan, Rosso attended Brera Academy, starting in 1882. In 1883 he was expelled for having instigated a protest among the students.
In 1885 he married Giuditta Pozzi and his son Francesco was born. The following year he made a portrait of the mother and son entitled Amor Materno.
In 1889 he went to Paris, where he resided for several years. From these years date the sculptures: Sick Man at the Hospital, Sick Child, Bambino al Seno, Laughing Child, Portrait of Henri Rouart.
In the beginning of the 1890's he made: Rieuse, Grande Rieuse, Bambino alle Cucine Economiche, Bookmaker, Reading Man, in which he achieved the dissolution of matter-a concept that he would develop further through a deep study and practice of photography.
In 1896 he went to London, where he exhibited with the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1900 he presented some works at the Universal Paris Exhbition, where he met Etha Fles, who from this point on was an important presence both artistically and personally.
He exhibited also in Berlin, Leipzig, and at the Vienna Secession.
In 1904 he took part in the Salon d'Automne exhibition in the same room as Cezanne's "The Bathers", also hanging some of his photographs on the wall.
In 1912 Boccioni personally mailed him a copy of the manifesto of Futurist Sculpture, where he explicitly addressed Rosso as the only artistic precedent that the Futurists would acknowledge.
At the beginning of the First World War he returned to Italy. In 1914 he was invited to participate at the 9th International Art Exhibition in Venice where he presented 20 works. He was accompanied by his son Francesco. Even after the end of the war he returned seldomly to Paris. He preferred instead to exhibit in Milan at the Bottega di Poesia in 1923 and at the Palazzo della Permanente for the first Show of Italian Art of the 1900s (1926).
His last sculpture was Ecce Puer, dating 1906, but his work did not stop after this date. His research to achieve the dissolution of matter still captivated the new generation of artists.

Due to some photographic plates that fell on his foot, producing an infection, he died in Milan on March 31st 1928.
His sculptures are preserved in the most important museums of the world.