Domo D’Ossola 1883

Frederick Arthur Bridgman made this pencil sketch of Domo D’Ossola in September of 1867. It depicts a cluster of buildings in the Italian Alps. Bridgman was an American artist who had been trained in the French academic style. In his lifetime he became famous for his paintings of Orientalist scenes in North Africa. Yet, early in his career, he traveled to Europe. He began with academic landscapes, carefully depicting old buildings and towns in a way that was legible and pleasing for the tastes of wealthy patrons. This drawing seems to be an exercise in this style of art. It is not a political artwork, but it participates in a system in which artists depended on the patronage of the upper class. To understand this drawing better, we could look at the training that artists were given at the time. Art historians like me often look at old letters, exhibition reviews, and records of art sales to better understand the social context of artworks like this one.