(Turin 1871–1958 Rome) Luci a Villa Borghese, signed Balla, verso signed and dated Balla 1950, oil on wooden panel, 28 x 33 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate:
Prof Enrico Crispolti, Rome, 2 May 1997; Dott.ssa Elena Gigli, archive no. 146 2004, Rome 1 April 2004

Provenance:
Luce Balla, daughter of the artist (written declaration on photograph available);
Private Collection, Italy

From 1904 onwards, Giacomo Balla and his family lived in what was then the outlying district of Parioli, in a former convent dwelling at 6 Via Parioli (now Via Paisiello), on the corner of Via Nicolà Porpora. From the balcony linking the rooms, the inspiration for his ‘little girl running on the balcony’ of 1912, Balla could see Villa Borghese with its trees, colours and fountains. In a biographical note we read: “I feed on the pure bounty of nature”. And in another notebook: “The complete painter who loves eternal truth as expressed in NATURE, is prompted by nature to paint. When this happens the transmission channels are naively unaware of any school, method, rules, airs etc and are virginally sincere, springing up only because they have tapped into those very special senses or nerves finely tuned towards creating art”.
In 1929 the Balla family moved to Via Oslavia in the working-class district of Prati. In 1937 Balla wrote in ‘Perseus” of his “conviction that pure art lies in absolute realism, without which one lapses into decorative, ornamental forms, so I have gone back to the art I was engaged in before: the interpretation of naked and healthy reality which is always infinitely new and convincing, through the spontaneous sensitivity of the artist”. Having survived the hardship of the war years and his grief at the loss of his wife Elisa (on 28th October 1947), Balla continued to paint naked and healthy reality.
This corner of Villa Borghese is bathed in light. On the right, between green curtains of trees stretching upwards, the frothing fountain is lit up like a street lamp.
Signed at bottom right, the work shows the same freshness in the signature on the back: BALLA 1950. (Elena Gigli)