Education
Although he received drawing lessons at the poorhouse in Giovinazzo, he never attended a formal art school and was entirely self-taught.
Although he received drawing lessons at the poorhouse in Giovinazzo, he never attended a formal art school and was entirely self-taught.
He was orphaned as a young child. From 1854 to 1855, he worked as an ornamental painter in Naples. In 1857, he was suspected of being an Anti-Bourbon conspirator and was exiled to Piedimonte d"Alife.
While there, he first took up painting seriously, producing a portrait of the Duke of Laurenzana and some still-lifes.
After 1859, he took part in revolutionary activities, fighting with Garibaldi in 1860. He held several exhibition in Naples (1861-1862) and Florence (1863), then retired from public life and nothing is known of his work for a decade.
Apparently, he taught drawing in municipal schools to support himself. He began exhibiting again in 1874.
He became known for teaching design.
He became professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Naples, honorary professor of the Accademia Ligustica and Director of the School of Applied Design. He published collections of designs for the manufacture of lace, which was awarded silver medal at the Esposizione Generale Italiana of Turin in 1884. He also published a text of elementary design, which includes a collection of plants and of drawings in twenty plates.
Toma also published a short autobiographical book, entitled Memories of an orphan (Ricordi di un orfano).
His most famous pupil was the Neapolitan sculptor Giovanni de Martino.