DOI issue:
Nr. 246 (September 1913)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21159#0340
Studio-Talk
correctness of Meissonier or of Fortuny. Fetes
galantes, pictures of graceful and elegant women or
of rococo masqueraders, were not infrequent sub-
jects of the Lombard artist’s brush, and in this series
of works I remember a very fine study of a soldier of
the seventeenth century, now in the Musee Civique
at Milan. He also made some essays in the art of
fresco-painting, and achieved success also in this
branch of the subject.
A close friend of Cremona, Mose Bianchi was
not possessed of such pronounced individuality as
his confrere, but he had a bolder technique and more
emotional qualities. They were, however, alike in
one thing, and that is in the good influence they
exercised upon the young painters of Lombardy.
They were both of them implacable opponents of
academic art teaching ; both were gifted with a great
sense of colour and with the power of setting down
on canvas the aspects and characteristics of modern
life, and the present-day school of painting in
Lombardy descends straight from these two men,
like a stream flowing from a spring.
Like Cremona, Bianchi encountered strong
opposition from mediocre painters, who enjoyed a
far greater measure of popular success. When the
professorship of painting in the Turin Academy
became vacant in 1889 he put up for it, hoping to
draw from the post some small salary to assure him
the necessaries of life ; but he saw an artist of far
inferior ability triumph over him, and later when he
tried again for the post he was again unsuccessful.
After he had been for some time teaching elemen-
tary drawing in the Collegio Reale delle Fanciulle
at Milan, he once more entered as candidate for a
professorship at the Academy of Venice, and was suc-
cessful. This gave him the chance of going to Venice
and Chioggia, which had inspired him with dreams
of a masterpiece. Alas! they were only dreams, for he
died without painting the picture of his imagination.
Bianchi’s pictures are rich in beauties, and
posterity will surely recognise in the painter’s
versatility and in the excellent work of his brush
the power and splendour which the artist’s own
modesty would not let him see. He was a prolific
worker, and had to shut his eyes to his straitened
circumstances, though he was keenly alive to them.
He died, however, unembittered, and I am sure
never repented having rejected the career his father
had mapped out for him. Alfredo Melani.
“the return of the flock” (The property of Sgr. G. Suvini) by mose bianchi
320
correctness of Meissonier or of Fortuny. Fetes
galantes, pictures of graceful and elegant women or
of rococo masqueraders, were not infrequent sub-
jects of the Lombard artist’s brush, and in this series
of works I remember a very fine study of a soldier of
the seventeenth century, now in the Musee Civique
at Milan. He also made some essays in the art of
fresco-painting, and achieved success also in this
branch of the subject.
A close friend of Cremona, Mose Bianchi was
not possessed of such pronounced individuality as
his confrere, but he had a bolder technique and more
emotional qualities. They were, however, alike in
one thing, and that is in the good influence they
exercised upon the young painters of Lombardy.
They were both of them implacable opponents of
academic art teaching ; both were gifted with a great
sense of colour and with the power of setting down
on canvas the aspects and characteristics of modern
life, and the present-day school of painting in
Lombardy descends straight from these two men,
like a stream flowing from a spring.
Like Cremona, Bianchi encountered strong
opposition from mediocre painters, who enjoyed a
far greater measure of popular success. When the
professorship of painting in the Turin Academy
became vacant in 1889 he put up for it, hoping to
draw from the post some small salary to assure him
the necessaries of life ; but he saw an artist of far
inferior ability triumph over him, and later when he
tried again for the post he was again unsuccessful.
After he had been for some time teaching elemen-
tary drawing in the Collegio Reale delle Fanciulle
at Milan, he once more entered as candidate for a
professorship at the Academy of Venice, and was suc-
cessful. This gave him the chance of going to Venice
and Chioggia, which had inspired him with dreams
of a masterpiece. Alas! they were only dreams, for he
died without painting the picture of his imagination.
Bianchi’s pictures are rich in beauties, and
posterity will surely recognise in the painter’s
versatility and in the excellent work of his brush
the power and splendour which the artist’s own
modesty would not let him see. He was a prolific
worker, and had to shut his eyes to his straitened
circumstances, though he was keenly alive to them.
He died, however, unembittered, and I am sure
never repented having rejected the career his father
had mapped out for him. Alfredo Melani.
“the return of the flock” (The property of Sgr. G. Suvini) by mose bianchi
320