Gioacchino Toma

Gioacchino Toma (24 January 1838–12 January 1891) was an Italian painter, mainly of historic and genre subjects, painted in a Romantic style.

He was born in Galatina, and orphaned as a young child. Although he received drawing lessons at the poorhouse in Giovinazzo, he never attended a formal art school and was entirely self-taught. From 1854 to 1855, he worked as an ornamental painter in Naples. In 1857, he was suspected of being an Anti-Bourbon conspirator and was exiled to Piedimonte d'Alife. While there, he first took up painting seriously, producing a portrait of the Duke of Laurenzana and some still lifes.

After 1859, he took part in revolutionary activities, fighting with Garibaldi in 1860. He held several exhibition in Naples (1861-62) and Florence (1863), then retired from public life and nothing is known of his work for a decade. Apparently, he taught drawing in municipal schools to support himself. He began exhibiting again in 1874.

He became known for teaching design. He became professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Naples, honorary professor of the Accademia Ligustica and Director of the School of Applied Design. He was named a knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy.

He published collections of designs for the manufacture of lace, which was awarded silver medal at the Esposizione Generale Italiana of Turin in 1884. He also published a text of elementary design, which includes a collection of plants and of drawings in twenty plates. Toma also published a short autobiographical book, entitled Memories of an orphan (Ricordi di un orfano). He died in Naples.

His most famous pupil was the Neapolitan sculptor Giovanni de Martino. Another pupil was the painter Lionello Balestrieri.

He painted a large canvas on the Eruption of Vesuvius, also called A Rain of Ashes (La pioggia di cenere di Vesuvio)( displayed at Turin Exhibition and donated to Academy of Florence), that documents a tradition that locals from the areas at the foot of the volcano, during minor eruptions, would parade an icon of Saint Januarius and plead in prayer to be spared greater harm from an eruption. He also painted La confessione. Angelo de Gubernatis quotes a critic, remarking on the latter painting, who called Toma a painter of

...
Wikipedia