Study of an Officer

Study of an Officer holding a Halberd, seen from behind
Framed: 5 1/8" w x 9 1/8" h (23.3 x 13.1 cm)

Bison received his initial training in Brescia at the workshops of Saverio Gandini and Girolamo Romani. In 1779, he entered the Venetian Accadèmia, where he studied until 1789 with Antonio Maria Zanetti, Costantino Cedini, and the vedute painter Antoni Mauro. From Zanetti, he absorbed an interest in the strong effects of light and shadow, reflecting his master’s work as a printmaker. In Venice, Bison was strongly influenced by the works of Francesco Guardi, Alessandro and Pietro Longhi, Sebastiano Ricci, and Giandomenico Tiepolo. In the late 1780s, Bison established a collaborative friendship with the architect Gianantonio Selva, who often involved the artist in frescoing the interiors of buildings on which he was working. Between 1792 and 1796, Bison completed a series of fresco cycles in Venice and throughout the Veneto, at the palazzi Dolfin-Manin and Maffetti-Manzoni, the ville Brambullo, Spineda, Suppley-Piva and Tivaroni, as well as the casino Soderini del Selva. In about 1780, Bison left Venice for Udine, and then traveled to Trieste, where he achieved considerable success as a fresco painter and scenographer. Around 1803-4, Bison completed a fresco cycle, depicting stories of the Iliad, in the Palazzo Carciotti, which was perhaps his most important commission. Bison’s interest in scenographic design, encouraged by his friendship with Selva resulted in many theatrical commissions and requests for decorative schemes, which Bison executed throughout northern Italy, in Venice, Treviso and Trieste. In 1831, he moved to Milan, where he remained until his death in 1844.
As a draftsman, Bison produced an array of subjects in a free, loose and quick manner, employing an array of media and techniques. This study of an officer holding a halberd, seen from behind, was rendered confidently in black chalk. It belongs to a group of drawings of soldiers, all seen from behind, which Bison drew in the 1810s, all in a Romantic manner.