Giacomo Balla *

(Turin 1871–1958 Rome)
La casa-convento di via Parioli, 1905, signed and dated, oil on wood, 20 x 30 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Archivio Gigli, Rome curated by Elena Gigli and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity

Provenance:
Casa Balla, Rome
Ugo Ojetti, Rome
European Private Collection


In 1904 Giacomo Balla married Elisa Marcucci, and they moved to the then-suburban neighborhood of Parioli, to the house-convent at Via Parioli 6 (now Via Paisiello).

In this small panel, the convent where the Balla couple settled in 1904 dominates the scene. (...) Starting from the top of the panel, one can notice clear pictorial harmonies with works Balla created contemporaneously and immediately after this period. Around these years, Balla produced many views of Villa Borghese, his “Montagne Saint-Victoire” (Fagiolo, 1968), most of them in pastels, where, to render the movement and the variation of light on color, Balla would carve the paper with his knife. In this piece, Balla conveys the movement of the winding road leading up to the convent as the wind among the trees, imbuing the iconic details with thick chromatic filaments. Finally, it is worth noting how the rich color scheme of the sky, almost dotted, is very close to the setting sun in the 1908 canvas Maggio or to the entire painting of the great Parco dei Daini of 1910.
Elena Gigli, 2004