A pupil of Napoleone Nani (Venice, 1841 - 1899) at the Accademia Cignaroli in Verona, Angelo Dall'Oca Bianca immediately made a name for himself with the lenticular realism he learned from the master, ignited by a vibrant colorism à la Favretto, mobile, imbued with light, all rendered with an absolutely peculiar and extremely elegant stylistic formula. His paintings, populated by a gay and lively humanity, fully embody the taste for genre painting that was so internationally appreciated at the end of the 19th century.

 

Marking the stages of Dall'Oca's growing success are his participations in the Brera (1880), Milan (1881), Rome (1882), Munich (1883), and Turin (1884, 1898) Expositions and his countless international awards: the Prince Umberto Prize at the Milan Exposition (1886), the bronze medal at the Paris World's Fair (1889), the silver medal at the National Review of Palermo (1891-1892), gold medals at the Universal Expositions of Chicago (1893) and Antwerp (1894), Paris (1900) and Saint Louis (1904), and the first prize at the Rome International (1904).

 

The numerous awards go hand in hand with exceptional sales to a prestigious clientele, both public and private: from the City Hall to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, from the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York to the Museu Municipal de Belles Arts in Barcelona, from Victor Emmanuel III, who buys some paintings for the royal villa in Monza, to wealthy collectors from all over the world.

The Budapest International in 1901 devoted a room to Dall'Oca with fifty-six of his works, while at the 10th Venice Biennale in 1912 he was given a section with no less than eighty-three works, presented in the catalog with an introduction by the artist himself.

Starting roughly from these dates we see a reformulation of the artist's painting style, now marked by the singular, highly original coexistence of Symbolist echoes and Divisionist presentiments. Emblematic of the new course of Dall'Oca's painting is this very elegant self-portrait of 1914. Having abandoned the glowing realism that had consecrated his fame, while at the same time caging his happiness of inspiration within expressive stereotypes that had become mannered with the passage of time, the artist finally indulges in a creative freedom that once again proves to be highly modern. An unprecedented stylistic figure, all the more interesting because it is genuine and in tune with the European artistic temperament of the early 20th century.

The long, filamentous brushstrokes, the fast, restless sign, return the features of a decidedly fascinating man, aware of his own stage presence. Of this eminent figure of an artist, protagonist of the Veronese scene at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, countless portraits are known, but all of them later than this one.