Enlightened patronage

Alberto Della Ragione (1892–1973) was a naval engineer from Genoa with a passion for music, poetry and the visual arts; he also had the collecting bug.

Alberto Della Ragione (1892–1973) was a naval engineer from Genoa with a passion for music, poetry and the visual arts; he also had the collecting bug. Towards the end of the 1920s, he sold his earlier accumulation of 19th-century paintings and began to acquire modern art, concentrating on works with a figurative bias, but by some of the most adventurous spirits then active in Italy.

He became friendly with the second generation Futurists — Fillia, Enrico Prampolini and Fortunato Depero — and bought their work, later turning to support a younger group of realist painters including Renato Guttuso, Giuseppe Santomaso and Renato Birolli. These artists were allowed a monthly stipend, and in exchange Della Ragione expected first refusal to purchase their works. This is the same arrangement that Kenneth Clark had with Victor Pasmore, and is an excellent way for the better-off to provide real support for struggling artists.