Venice seen from San Giorgio

Fabrizio Magani and Alberto Craievich placed the beginning of Bison’s landscape production in the last years of the 18th century, soon after he moved to Trieste. This new subject can be interpreted as evocation (sometime not too far from counterfeiting) of landscapes and views inspired by the style of Marco Ricci or Canaletto¹.

These homages to the golden age of Venetian painting were particularly appreciated by the collectors in Trieste, and participated to the visual suggestions of the Grand Tour and of the luxury souvenir. As a matter of fact, almost all of these works by Bison were small or medium-sized, made in tempera on paper or cardboard, assuming a hybrid character between painting and drawing that allowed them either to be exhibited in a frame, either to inserted among the pages of an album or a folder.

They were highly sought-after works: as Giulio Caprin recalls, “Bison made one of those tempera paintings every day, and the bartender Tomaso paid for each of them a gold sequin”². Tomaso Mercato, owner of the famous Tommaseo Cafe in Trieste, owned “almost 150 paintings by Bison, of which two excellent, the Piazzetta and the Dogana of Venice”, exhibited in rotation along the walls of the Café.

Our unsigned gouache belongs to the most personal group of Bison’s views, which add a sketchy taste for the representation of the human figure to the meticulous topographical description of Venice. The unusual point of view, located on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, allows the artist to describe a group of ships with seamen intent on loading and unloading operations. The grisaille execution gives the painting a very refined look and is perhaps due to a specific request by the patron.