Devoted to art in an almost religious way, Poma was a major artist throughout his life, but only for a short period was he a painter in the professional sense of the term. Born in Biella in 1874, into a well-known family of entrepreneurs, Alessandro Poma completed his classical studies and then attended the Faculty of Law in Turin. On beginning his artistic career he exhibited in Rome, Turin, Milan and Venice, but not long afterwards, in 1910, he decided to withdraw from the commercial art circuits. His artistic research continued in a personal and intimate way and his paintings are a reflection of his emotions in contact with nature.

 

Autunm is a view of the Villa Borghese, a place very dear to the artist. In 1900, Poma moved to Rome, and resided in the Casina Raffaello of Villa Borghese for several years. A real study haven, where he found inspirations and curiosities in his constant attention to nature, letting himself be transported by the beauty of the park and its views, by the warmth of the Roman climate and its light. These were years of research and study. In a letter dated 1902, Giulio Aristide Sartorio strongly advised him to focus carefully on painting in the open air: “Do studies from life, quick, essential, this is an exercise that will help you understand things.” And it was precisely in this way that Poma created his works: from life and very rapidly, trying to capture in a single instant the longer portion of time that was compressed inside the painting – almost like a photograph with a very long exposure time. In fact, his works not only depict the subject, but also the surrounding air, the movement of the earth; not the subject in a precise moment but within the flow of time. For Poma, movement stood for the manifestation of life, the overwhelming and primordial force that springs from nature. A vortical dynamism seems to pass through all his works, as if an energetic gust of wind entered to play havoc with his paintings.