Gioacchino Toma was an orphan from the age of six and spent his childhood in southern Italian convents and poorhouses. It was in the Giovinazzo poorhouse that he first received drawing lessons and made his first sketches for still lifes. In 1855, Toma moved to Naples, where he trained with the painters Alessandro Fergola and Domenico Morelli. In 1857, he was falsely arrested for an alleged conspiracy and exiled to Piedimonte d'Alife, 60 kilometres from Naples. The Carbonari, a liberal aristocratic secret society, took him in and gave him his first commissions, mainly still lifes. In 1858, Toma was able to return to Naples and enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti. After Toma had spent two years fighting for Italian unification at Garibaldi's side, he regularly took part in exhibitions and competitions from 1861. He increasingly focused on socially critical pictorial themes, the depiction of which often appears to be unfinished, especially in the late phase of his work. From 1865, Toma taught applied design at a workers' school in Naples as well as embroidery at a poorhouse for women. In 1878, he became a teacher of ornamental drawing at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. Today, most of his works are on display in museums in Italy.