(Turin 1871–1958 Rome) Roma - Villa Borghese, L’ombra delle Torre, circa 1908, signed Balla, pastels on thin card, 55 x 38 cm, framed, (PP)

Provenance: Dottor Rodolfo Klien Collection – acquired from the artist Private Collection, Europe

Exhibition: Padua, Giacomo Balla 1895–1911, Verso il Futurismo, Palazzo Zabarella, 15. March - 28. June 1998, no. 54, p. 104 with ill. (curated by Maurizio Fagiola dell’Arco)

We are grateful to Ms Elena Gigli for her kind assistance.

Giacomo Balla is regarded as a master in the field of landscape painting, which he executes with the most diverse techniques: from divisionism to photographic mimesis. (…) Whilst only one landscape is known to depict Turin, many are the views of the Roman outskirts (‘the rising city’) and of the famous Roman countryside, which was also the place of his social activity. However, the majority of his views concern the natural environment he could see and study outside the walls of his studio: Villa Borghese. (…) And he painted what he saw from the balcony of his studio or just outside it. Within a few years, by 1910 (the year of his great polyptych ‘Villa Borghese’), the theme of nature at the borders of the house becomes his ‘Montagne Sainte-Victoire’. This is a theme he investigated and rehearsed over and over again, simplifying it to the point of abstraction. (…) Spring views are usually the subject. There is a tree marking the middle ground, the projection of a shadow on the left, and a background against the sky (a nigh photographic trait). ( Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, Giacomo Balla verso il Futurismo)