Mosè Bianchi (1840–1904) - Milano il naviglio

Mosè Bianchi (Monza, October 13, 1840 – Monza, March 15, 1904) Milan the canal, size with frame cm 60x50.
private collection
Label on the back, title, measurements, author.


Mosè Bianchi (Monza, October 13, 1840 – Monza, March 15, 1904) was an Italian painter.
Sometimes, Mosè Bianchi of Monza [1] should not be confused with the similarly named and nearly contemporary Mosè Bianchi of Lodi [2].

Biography
Childhood and artistic training

Memorial stone at the birthplace of Mosè Bianchi.
Son of the drawing teacher and modest painter Giosuè and Luigia Meani, and brother of the less famous painter Gerardo Bianchi, after completing his technical studies, he enrolled in 1856 at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he was a student of Schmidt, Bisi, Zimmermann, Sogni, and the director Giuseppe Bertini.

Ha per course companions Federico Faruffini, Tranquillo Cremona, Daniele Ranzoni, and Filippo Carcano, with whom he will share the Milanese study in via San Primo for several years.

Participate in the 1859 independence war.

Beginnings of a career
His first seven paintings belong to the Romantic school, following Bertini's indications: the Portrait of Simonetta Galimberti and the Portrait of Giacinta Galimberti from 1861, kept in the Civic Museums of Monza; Archpriest Stefano Guandeca accuses the Archbishop of Milan, Anselmo Pusterla, of sacrilegious betrayal, 1862, in a private collection; and the Conspiracy of Pontida, 1862, exhibited at Brera in 1862 and 1863.

He completed his studies in 1864 and received the commission for the San Luigi Communion for the parish church of Sant'Albino in Monza. He turned towards naturalistic representation, within the narrative taste of brothers Domenico and Gerolamo Induno, in works such as A Choral Singing Lesson, The Eve of the Festival, 1864, and The Clearing of the Altar, 1865, which drew critics' attention to his painting; but with Cleopatra and The Lady of Monza, of 1865, he fell back into the melodramatic genre of pseudo-historical romantic painting.

Artistic affirmation
In 1867, he wins, with The Shadow of Samuel appearing to Saul, the pensioner Oggioni, who funds him for two years of stay in Venice, where he studies 18th-century painting, as well as in Rome and Paris, where he is impressed by the paintings of Meissonier and Fortuny.

In 1869, he returned to Milan, where he presented at Brera the painting 'The Brothers in the Field,' which depicts some young women prostrate in prayer for the salvation of the fighting brothers during the Third War of Independence. By combining the realism of the image with patriotic and religious sentiment, it achieved great success among the Milanese bourgeoisie.

Wanted painter
Advisor since 1871 of the Accademia di Brera and now a fashionable painter, in The blessing of the houses, of 1870, he expresses, as in A good puff, of 1872, which wins the 'Principe Umberto' Prize in 1877, a genre sketch. In The painteress, of 1874, as in The courtesies and in A music lesson, he indulges in the delicacy of the neo-18th-century genre, while showing mastery in portraiture in the Portrait of Elisabetta Sottocasa, which also wins the 'Principe Umberto' Prize, in the Portrait of engineer Carlo Mira, and in the Portrait of Luigi Galbiati, of 1876.

Starting at the end of the 1870s, he began his activity as a fresco painter, orienting himself towards Tiepolo's style: in 1877, he created a cycle of frescoes at Villa Giovanelli in Lonigo, near Vicenza; from 1883 to 1884, he decorated the Royal Station of Monza with 'The Genius of the Savoia'; and in 1885, he decorated Palazzo Turati in Milan.

Mosè Bianchi is also engaged during this period in encouraging the artistic abilities of his nephew Pompeo Mariani, who, thanks to his uncle taking him to draw his first views of the Monza Park, will begin his artistic career, gaining fame at the European level.

In repeated trips to Venice, he produced lagoon views that earned him great popularity, so much so that he created numerous versions of one of his most successful paintings, The Lagoon in Storm, 1879, which is housed in the Museo Godi Valmarana in Lugo Vicentino.

He was admired by contemporaries Antonio Fontanesi and Domenico Morelli, who considered his painting to be extraordinarily modern; the canvas The Word of God, from 1887, shows the use of photography in his painting, and with The Laundresses, from 1894, he contributed to the depiction of the lives of 'the humble.'

After a brief period as a city councilor in Milan and an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts of Turin, in 1890 he painted in Gignese, above Lake Maggiore, a series of Alpine views that are an homage to Lombard naturalism: among many, 'House of the Shepherd' and 'Sheep at the Stream,' where, given a photographic cut of the image, he dwells on the luministic relationship between the water and the large stone boulders. The same year also features a series of views of Milan, such as 'Milan Under Snow,' 'Milan Suburb along the Naviglio,' and 'Riding,' a sunset over the Darsena of Porta Ticinese.

Last years and death
He also dedicates himself to etching and in 1896 is awarded at the National Engraving Competition. In 1898, he is appointed teacher and director of the Cignaroli Academy in Verona; however, an illness that arose in December 1899 forces him to return to Monza and abandon painting. The artist died in 1904 and is buried in the Monza Cemetery.

Cultural Association for the Study, Protection, and Enhancement of the Archive and Works of Mosè Bianchi, Pompeo Mariani, Elisabetta Keller
On January 30, 2019, the Mosè Bianchi Archive was established, an emanation of the Cultural Association for the protection, study, and enhancement of the Archive and the Works of Mosè Bianchi, Pompeo Mariani, and Elisabetta Keller.

The Mosè Bianchi Archive is coherently linked and arranged in chronological order by direct family lineage to the Pompeo Mariani Archive and the Elisabetta Keller Archive.

Critical evaluation
The tenacious and attentive studies had equipped him with a perfect technique; in the initial tests (marked by a turbulent romanticism of literary inspiration), contact with the great Venetian 18th-century artists was followed by more sound pictorial works, characterized by a more restrained romanticism and supported by a cultivated and energetic use of color.

He was a balanced draftsman, an untidy composer, a very raw painter, juicy, fresh, varied in his chromaticism where the color of the Venetians echoes without weakening, expert in every secret of art in rendering the delicacy of the atmosphere and in shaping with the effectiveness of a nervous stroke.