Giuseppe Bernardino Bison

Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (born in Palmanova, 16 June 1762 – died 24 August 1844) was an itinerant Italian painter of frescoes, landscapes, vedute, capricci and some religious works. He worked across the Veneto and the Adriatic coast, and his paintings are now held by museums in Europe and North America.

As a boy he moved with his family to Brescia, where he saw the work of Girolamo Romani and resolved to become a painter. Later the family settled in Venice, where he enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti and worked with Costantino Cedini. There he befriended the architect Gian Antonio Selva, with whom he took on decorative commissions in Ferrara, Padua, Treviso and Venice, including work at the Castello del Catajo and the Palazzo Dolfin Manin.

In Trieste he worked alongside Matteo Pertsch and the sculptor Antonio Bosa, and later in Zara, where he decorated the Palazzo del Governatore. In Trieste he also began producing landscapes and vedute for a growing market of prosperous non-aristocratic buyers, working with the local dealer Tosoni. His large canvases were costly. After 1831 he wandered again, settled in Milan and died in poverty.

His work is held in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the British Museum.