Owls

Angelo Dall'Oca Bianca (1858-1942) was born in Verona, where he attended the Cignaroli Academy from 1873 to 1876, studying drawing and painting under Napoleone Nani. He then moved to Venice where he attended free nude courses at the Academy of Fine Arts and the studio of the well-known verist Giacomo Favretto, from whom he also learned the use of photography as a preparatory element for painting. In his first pictorial phase he preferred painting that was representative of reality, taking his inspiration from scenes of everyday life in his native Verona and from the landscapes outlined by the Adige River and Garda Lake. Later, influenced by the work of Giacomo Favretto, he enriched his painting technique with brilliant colours and a broad, vaporous style. "Owls" is one of the many works that the artist dedicated in the course of his painting activity to places inhabited by women: squares, lakeside promenades, walks along the Adige River, places where female figures pass quickly or linger, chatting and admiring the landscape. Beyond the adherence to the themes of genre painting, it is as if the artist was paying homage to the natural female predisposition for interpersonal communication, to the attitude of building, sharing and enhancing the foundations of the city's community in the animated life of the square.