Work accompanied by authentic writing by the prof. Fernando Mazzocca

The atmosphere, the precision and the surprising refinement of this large watercolor allow it to be attributed to the landscape painter Giuseppe Bisi, of Genoese origin, but who spent his whole life in Milan where he was one of the protagonists of Romanticism with his views, landscapes, in particular the so-called "historiated" ones, i.e. with the insertion of historical scenes and characters where he followed the example of Massimo d'Azeglio who introduced this genre which was then highly appreciated by critics, the public and collectors. His works are preserved in the major museums of Lombardy such as the Civic Gallery of Modern Art, the Brera Academy and the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia.
Belonging to a family of artists, like his father Tommaso, a painter and sculptor, the brother Michele an engraver and cousin Luigi a landscape painter, also appreciated internationally for his interiors of monuments, in particular those of the Milan Cathedral. After his political past, for which he was a volunteer in the Napoleonic campaigns and a member of the Chancellery of the Viceroy of Italy Eugene de Beauharnais, he began to distinguish himself as a painter of views, present starting from 1818 at the annual exhibitions of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, where we find him in the following decades, among the landscape painters most sought after by the aristocracy and the rich bourgeoisie. The best-known work of his early years is a View of Villa Sommariva from the Lake (Tremezzo, Villa Carlotta), executed in 1823 for the greatest collector of the time, Giovanni Battista Sommariva.
His fame, consecrated precisely to the exhibitions of Brera, brought him a decisive and important recognition, when in 1838 he was assigned the chair of landscape painting, created especially for him, at the Brera Academy where he taught until 1856.
This urban view, rare in his production, confirms his skills as an analytical and poetic observer of reality, for which he was appreciated by critics, in particular by the authoritative Defendente Sacchi who in 1838 praised him because "he was one of the first to break away somewhat from the manner followed by Gozzi and his imitators, introducing into his paintings greater breadth of horizons, greater abundance and liveliness of specks, and trying to diminish that brilliance of enamel, which appeared in his landscapes of that master and his followers".
This enchanting glimpse of a corner of Milan surrounded by greenery, with the profiles of the houses emerging beyond the thick curtain of trees, strikes us for the skill with which he was able to use a medium such as watercolour, through which he managed to obtain particular chromatic and light effects. A clear light that falls on the surfaces and highlights that portion of the building which closes, with a beautiful effect, the composition on the right. But what strikes us most and what determines the poetic charm of this view is the precise clarity with which every detail of the vegetation, architecture and figurines that animate the intense and suspended atmosphere, immersed in the peace, away from the monumental and worldly itineraries of the city; it is the same spirit that animates the View of the church of San Marco exhibited in Brera in 1823, which it should be similar to chronologically.

Milan, 7 July 2024
Prof. Fernando Mazzocca