Silvio Poma

Silvio Poma Landscape With Shepherds, an oil painting on canvas, depicts a dirt road in the middle of a wooded countryside with farmers grazing a flock of sheep. On the left side of this rural Lombard landscape we find a waterway with a small bridge. The signature S. Poma is located in the lower right. The painting is on its original canvas in a good state of conservation within a beautiful gilded, period frame in pastiglia. Silvio Poma (Trescore Balneario 1840 – Turate 1932) is known as a painter of landscapes with a repertoire of lake views, often visiting Lake Como and the small village of Lierna to paint, with an intimist character, also showing the influence of his contemporary Filippo Carcano in their realistic approach. The period from 1883 onwards saw an increase in activity with the systematic presentation of works in national exhibitions and lasting success on the art market. He participated as a volunteer in the Second War of Independence and, later, embarked on a military life, but in 1866 he was discharged from the army after contracting malaria. Upon his return to Milan, he frequented the studios of Giovan Battista Lelli and Gerolamo Induno, both painter-soldiers with whom he had come into contact during the military campaign of 1859. He made his debut at the Brera Fine Arts Exhibition in 1869, but the first official recognitions came only in the middle of the following decade: in 1876 he won the Mylius prize from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts with a canvas of historical subject set in a broad natural context of romantic taste entitled Macbeth meets in the forest of Dunscinane the witches who predict him the throne; in 1877 one of his landscapes was purchased at the National Exhibition of Naples by Vittorio Emanuele II. He was buried at the Cimitero Maggiore in Milan, where his remains were later collected in a cell. The public purchase by King Vittorio Emanuele II for his private collection will confer international fame among the royal families of the time. At the National Exhibition of Milan in 1881 he presented: View of Lake Lecco and the tip of Bellagio (called La Punta di Bellagio); Abbadia on Lake Lecco; Riva near Abbadia; Lake Lecco in Lierna; Monterosso; Punta di Palianzo, Lake Maggiore; at the National Exhibition of ??Milan in 1883, A Lugano wood; Chestnut Forest; Lake of Pescate; at the Rome Exhibition of 1883; Lake Garda; Lake of Pescate; at the Turin Exhibition of 1884: The Pianazzo wood in Lugano wood; Shore of Vercurago; Monte Rosa; near Sesto Calende; Lake Lugano, Agno branch; National Exhibition of Milan in 1886: The Canto horns of Valmadrera; Monte San Martino; Monte Legnane; Panorama of Lecco; at the Venice Exhibition of 1887: The Lecco Bridge; Pescarenico on the Adda and Sul Lago”; and at the Bologna Exhibition of 1888: Alture di Menaggio and Pescarenico and Monte San Martino. Height: 66 (45) cm. - Width: 57 (35) cm. Depth: 7 cm.