Mosè Bianchi


Mosè Bianchi was an Italian painter and printmaker.

Biography

The son of Giosuè Bianchi, a painter of portraits and religious subjects in the academic style, he enrolled at the Brera Academy, Milan, in 1856. In 1859 he temporarily abandoned his studies to fight in the second Italian War of Independence, returning to Milan to study under Giuseppe Bertini. Among his fellow pupils was Tranquillo Cremona, whose involvement with the Scapigliati later had an impact on Bianchi’s work.
In 1862 Bianchi exhibited his first large-scale, independently executed work, the history painting the Priest Stefano Guandeca Accusing the Archbishop of Milan, Anselmo Pusterla, of Sacrilegious Betrayal. He continued to exhibit regularly and in 1866 he was awarded the Pensionato Oggioni for his Conversion of St. Paul, which enabled him to visit Venice, Paris and Rome. During this period Bianchi met the artists Mariano Fortuny y Marsal and Ernest Meissonier, and the dealer Goupil, who inspired him to produce a series of 18th-century genre scenes such as Leaving for the Duel.
Eighteenth-century influences, especially the work of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, were also important for his many fresco cycles, starting with those in the Villa Giovanelli in Lonigo in the Veneto. Bianchi continued to attract attention with his views of Chioggia and Milan, these frequently providing the background for genre scenes.
Bianchi took part with some success at the Brera exhibitions and the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. It was in this period that he began to paint genre scenes in 18th-century settings and numerous portraits, soon becoming one of the artists most in demand with the Milanese middle classes.
In 1890 Bianchi extended his interest to rural scenes, following Eugenio Gignous and visiting Gignese on Lake Maggiore, where he painted works of great charm such as Goats at Gignese. Notwithstanding his intense activity and continued public success, Bianchi spent his final years in poverty, assisted by his nephew, the painter Pompeo Mariani.
Among his main works were a Monaca di Monza and a Milton exhibited in 1877 in Naples. In 1878, he exhibited in Paris a portrait of his father, a portrait of Signora Ponti, and I Chierici in Processione . In 1881 in Milan, he exhibited Burrasca nel Golfo di Venezia; in 1884 in Turin, he exhibited Canale di Chioggia; in 1887 Venice, he exhibited five canvases: Mascherata Chioggiotta; Laguna in burrasca; Chioggia; Parola di Dio, and Vaporino di Chioggia.

Works