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http://www.archive.org/details/giovannisegantinOOvill


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINI


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SORROW COMFORTED BY TAITH


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GIOVANNISEGANTINIBYL:VILLARITHE STORY OF HISLIFE TOGETHERWITH SEVENTY FIVEREPRODUCTIONSOF HIS PICTURESIN HALF TONE ANDPHOTOGRAVURE

NEW YORKE. P. DUTTON & Co.


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All Righh Reserved.


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CONTENTSCHAP. PAGEI.EARLY LIFE A\D STRUGGLES I

U.IX THE BRIAXZA 28lU.THE PAINTER OF THE ALPS.AT SAVOGNIXO ... 56IV.SEGANTIXI THE MAN : LETTERS AND WRITINGS . . 102V.SEGANTINI'S SYMBOLISM : HIS DEATH . . . . 161


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSSORROW COMFORTED BY FAITH . . . . Frontispiece.STILL LIFE.TURKEYSTILL LIFE.GOOSESACRED ART .DEAD HERO .SILKWORMSBRIANZA PIPERSIDYLLTHE LAST TASK OF THE DAYONE MOREIN THE SHEEPFOLD .A KISS BY THE FOUNTAINTWO MOTHERSORPHANSSLEEPING SHEPHERDMOONLIGHT EFFECTLITTLE SHEEPbird's NEST .ON THE ALPS AFTER A STORMSAD HOURSA PRAYER TO THE CROSS AVE MARIA A TRASBORDO THE BLESSING OF THE SHEEPSHEEP-SHEARING .THE POTATO HARVESTEARLY MASS .AT THE TETHERDUN COWTHE RETURN FROM THEAT SAVOGNINOCOW DRINKINGON THE BALCONY .REST IN THE SHADECOWS UNDER THE YOKETHE RETURN TO THE SHEEPF

{St Sebastian Day)

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSTO FACE PAGE

KNITTING 77HAYMAKING 8oPLOUGHING IN THE ENGADINE 83ALPINE PASTURES 84SPRING PASTURES 86SPRING IN THE ALPS 88ALPINE LANDSCAPE 9^THE SPINNING-WHEEL 94MOTHERS 96MY MODELS 98TOBOGANNING lOOPORTRAIT OF SEGANTINI BY HIMSELF 102THE CHILD OF LOVE I05A ROSE LEAF I07MORNING HOURS IO9LOVE AT THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE 112THE ANGEL OF LIFE XI7THE SOURCE OF EVIL I20THE PUNISHMENT OF LUXURY 122THE UNNATURAL MOTHERS {firsl venion) 129THE UNNATURAL MOTHERS {sc'coild version) 133THE HOME-COMING 135PORTRAIT OF CARLO ROTTA 1 39PORTRAIT OF SEGANTINI BY HIMSELF I42PORTRAIT OF AN OLD LADY I45THE SOWER 150MIDDAY ON THE ALPS 156COW IN A FARMYARD 159THE ANNUNCIATION 163THE TRIPTYCH. 167FIRST PANEL OF THE TRIPTY'CH : LIFE 169SECOND PANEL OF THE TRIPTYCH : NATURE 174THIRD PANEL OF THE TRIPTYCH : DEATH 177CARTOON OF THE FIRST PANEL 179CARTOON OF THE SECOND PANEL 182CARTOON OF THE THIRD PANEL 188CARTOON OF THE LUNETTE OVER THE MIDDLE PANEL ST.

MORITZ BY NIGHT 190MEDALLION FROM THE TRIPTYCH : ALPENROSE .... 194MEDALLION FROM THE TRIPTYCH : EDELWEISS .... 202SEGANTINI'S HEAD (AFTER DEATH) BY SIGNOR GIACOMETTI . . 205


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PREFATORY NOTE

IN publishing this Life of Giovanni Segantini, Imust sincerely thank the various ladies andgentlemen whose kind help in furnishing me withletters and other material has enabled me to writeit. I am extremely grateful to Signor Alberto

Grubicy, of Milan, who was most useful in giving meaccess to much interesting matter ; to Signora Neera,of Milan, who lent me a large number of unpublishedletters ; to Signora Segantini, the artist's widow ; toSignor Diego Martinelli ; to Signor Vittorio Pica ; toSignor Primo Levi, who kindly allowed me to translatemany letters and other writings of Segantini's whichhe had published in the Rivista d' Italia; to Dr.Steffans, of Freiburg, who supplied me with someinteresting information about the artist's ideas andopinions ; to Signor Orvieto, of Florence ; and to Dr.Oscar Bernhard, of Samaden, who attended the artistduring his last illness.

I must also make my acknowledgments to thevarious writers whose publications I have made useof and quoted :

Signor Luca Beltrami, in the Niiova Antologia,November i6, 1899.

Signor E. Bermani's Commemorazione di GiovanniSegantini, Milano, 1899.

Signor Tommaso Bresciani's Giovanni Segantini,Arco, 1899.


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PREFATORY NOTEMr. Burnley Bibb, in The Studio, August i6, 1897.Herr W. Fred's Giovanni Segantini, Wien, 1901,

and also in The Artist, November, 1898.Signer Primo Levi, in La Rivista d' Italia, Novem-

ber and December, 1899.Signora Neera, in the Emporium, March, 1896.Signor Ugo Ojetti in the Nuova Antologia, October

16, 1899.Herr Peltzer, in Die Kuust fiir Alle (Munchen),April I, 1900.Herr William Ritter's Giovanni Segantini, Wien,

1897, and also in La Gazette des Beaux Arts,April I, 1898.

M. Robert de la Sizeranne, in the Revue des DeuxMondes, April 15, 1898, and in the Rez'ue der Art, November 10, 1899.

Le Comte de Soissons, in The Dome, April 15, 1899.Signor Tumiati, in Z' Arte (Roma), 1898.Herr Wolter, in Die Kunst fiir Alle, April i, 1900.Miss Helen Zimmern, in The Magazine of Art,

November, 1896.Signor Ettore Zoccoli's Giovanni Segantini, Milano,

1900.I have also obtained information from various articles

in the Marzocco (Firenze), by Signori Tumiati, Orvieto,Ojetti, and Signora Neera, and from one or twoanonymous articles in other publications.

L. VILLARILondon, fuly 29, 1901


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CHAPTER IEARLY LIFE AND STRUGGLES

MODERN Italian art has hitherto attractedbut little attention beyond the Alps. Inmost of the international art exhibitionsa certain number of pictures by Italian

artists have been seen, sometimes admired, sometimesseverely criticised, but more often passed by in silence.The countless travellers who year by year visit Italyare too much absorbed by the natural beauties of thecountry on the one hand, and by the masterpieces ofancient art on the other, to take any interest in the worksof contemporary painters ; the more so as but fewamong them present any very striking characteristics.

But within the last ten or fifteen years, in Paris, inLondon, in Berlin, in Vienna, and in the other greatcentres of artistic life, some strange pictures by a youngand unknown Italian artist from time to time have madetheir appearance. What struck one most at first sight


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GfOVANNI SEGANTINIin these paintings was their subjects. They usuallyrepresented mountain scenesblue-green glaciers, vastglistening: snowfields, masses of rock, skies of an intenseblue, and foregrounds sometimes of brilliant greensprinkled with flowers, sometimes covered with snow.There were also houses and huts, figures of peasants,cattle, and sheep ; but the living things and man'shandiwork were but the elements of the composition,and not the central idea. Sometimes a symbolic ten-dency was noticeable, and weird figureshalf-human,half-fantasticarose from the glaciers and rocks toexpress some allegorical idea. The living things andthe houses had been painted before, but the snowand the mountains were noxelties even for the veteranconnoisseur.

Hitherto such subjects had never been attemptedwith any degree of success. The feeble productions ofCalame had destroyed Switzerland and the high Alps forthe artist, and no self-respecting painter dared to go to themountains for inspiration. That region was left to theamateur water-colourist and the sentimental young lady.Tell's Chapel, Mont Blanc with the Lake of Geneva in theforeground, Chillon, the towers of Lucerne, the Alps fromBerne, were usually chosen by artists of this class, withthe result we all know. Occasionally a good sketch waspainted : a picture never. But here was a man who hadthe courage to paint the high Alps and who exidentlyknew what he was about while doing so, and whose

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIwant of it, he could not fail to treat even these scenes inan original manner. As his art developed he wanderedfurther afield, and climbed ever higher up the mountains,where he found new subjects. First he settled atSavognino, in the Orisons, and then he went higher stillto the Maloja. Every stage of his upward progressmarks a stage of his artistic development. The higherhe climbed, the surer became his touch, the more power-ful his imagination. It is as a painter of the Alps thathe will be remembered, for, having discovered a newsubject, he discovered a new technique that was suitedto it. His last work, the great triptych for the ParisExhibition of 1900, was the apotheosis of his art, for itsummed up every form of life and every aspect of naturein the high Alps. It was his swan song ; but he neverfinished it, for he died while at work on it on theSchafberg.

Who was Giovanni Segantini ? Whence did hecome ? What manner of man was he, and how did helive ? To answer these questions is the object of thismemoir.

Giovanni Segantini was born on June 15, 1858,at Arco, in the Trentino, near the Lake of Garda.Technically he was an Austrian subject, but, like all theinhabitants of that part of the Tirol, he was an Italianby race, language, and character. Moreover, not havingserved his term in the Austrian army he lost his Austrian

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIcitizenship. His father was a carpenter, and belonged toone of those peasant families that in the Middle Ages hadbrought forth soldiers, and in the present day providegood farmers. His mother was of the lower bourgeoisie.She helped to eke out the family's small income byselling fruit and vegetables. They lived in a littletumble-down house with dilapidated doors and windows,situated at the head of the bridge over the roaring Sarca.The village of Arco is dominated by ruins of an old castlerising on a precipitous crag. Around are high dolomitepeaks, shooting upwards like sharp needles. They are ofbright coloursred, crimson, rich brown, at sunset tingedwith gold. To the south the valley gradually opens outtowards the blue waters of the Lago di Garda. Thiscountry is, like

Caledonia stern and wild,Fit nurse for a poetic child.

Segantini, in fact, passed the first five years of hislife amidst these surroundings, and they did not failto influence him, for he was to become the painter ofthe Alps.He was born into the world delicate and weakly, sothat it was thought necessary to have him christened bythe nurse on the very day of his birth ob periculumvitae. It was only with difficulty and with constantcare that his life was saved, although in after years,owing to the healthy existence he led, he became asstrong as a young Hercules.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIAgain, at a very early age he ran serious danger from

an accident, described by himself in picturesque language. One day, he wrote, when I was about four years

old, I was crossing a narrow little bridge over a millstream which worked several flour mills, leading to somedye-works. Another boy, a little bigger than myself,was crossing the bridge in the opposite direction to drawwater ; so we met half way. He bent down to fill hispitcher from the stream ; the bridge was narrow, and heknocked up against me so that I fell in. I rememberbeing carried down under a stone bridge; the stream wasrapid ; beyond the bridge there were some washenvomenalong the bank : I can still see them with their armsupraised and their scared faces, shrieking madly. When-ever my head rose above the a\ aters I saw my cap, a redwoollen cap which my mother had made ; and lastly Isaw the great wheel of my godfather's mill looming evernearer. When I again opened my eyes a brilliant whitelight struck me: it was the sun beating on our gardenwall. In the blue sky the larks were singing. This too Iremember well, that a man with long legs was carryingme on his shoulders towards home (I afterwards heardthat he was a Jdger, who happening to pass by thebridge had thrown himself into the water to save me,for which act of bravery he received a reward from theAustrian Government). Many women were around me.When I got home I was put to bed and wrapped up inblankets. The following evening, after having slept and

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIperspired much, I awoke and looked around. My fatherand mother were near me, and when they sawthat I waslooking at them, they began to cry.

It is interesting to note in this fragment of recollec-tions, that even when a child that which always impressedhim most was light and colour, to the study of which hewas afterwards to devote his life. In a further bit ofautobiography relating to his early years in Milan thesame tendency is observable.

When Segantini was about five years old his mother,U'ho had never recovered from his birth, died. Her heremembered vividly, and in after years maternal lovebecame one of his favourite subjects. This note is to befound in many of his pictures, both in those of theBrianza period and in his Alpine compositions. Thelove of the mother for her living child, the motherweeping over her dead child's grave, the cow's love forher calf, and the sheep's love for her lamb, Segantini haspainted over and over again, perhaps with a feeling of dutyand of paying the debt which he owed his own motherfor having even unwittingly been the cause of her death.I see her, he wrote, with my mind's eye, her tallfigure, her languid gait. She was beautiful, not like thesunrise or midday, but like the sunset in spring. Whenshe died she Avas twenty-nine years old. . . . My fatherwas about twenty years older than she, who was histhird wife.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINImother's death, his father shut up his business at Arcoand went with him to Milan, where he had another sonand daughter by his first wife, with the intention ofsettling there. The elder son kept a small perfumer'sshop, while the daughter looked after the house, the twojust managing to keep body and soul together. Butthings were going badly, and the shop had to be closed,and most of the furniture sold. Then Segantini's fatherand brother left Milan and emigrated to America in thehope of finding better luck. They never returned.Giovanni, by that time just turned six, remained behindwith his half-sister. And here, he says, begins myown personal life, now happy and now wretched, butnever all of one tone, for even sadness and sorrow didnot make me altogether unhappy.

His was a lonely life indeed, for his sister had to beout all day at her work, leaving her little brother alone inthe two tiny rooms which they occupied in a wretchedtenement in the Via San Simone. He never even saw theother dwellers on the same floor.

The windows of the two little rooms in which welived were very high up, so that even if I stood up on thetable I could see nothing but the sky the dull, leadensky of a Milanese winter, which is no less drearyand depressing than that of London in December. Therefore I did not like being alone : I was oftenseized with an indefinable fear; and then I would fleedown a narrow passage to the landing, where I could see,

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIthrough a square window, a broad vista of roofs andsteeples, and down below a little courtyard, shut in, anddeep as a well. I remained at that window all theendless days of many months ; and for a time I wasalways waiting for father, who had told me that he wouldsoon come back, but I never saw him again. Onrainy or sunny days I was always sad, but resigned : Idid not yet understand if this life was going to last forever or was to end at once. When the church bellsrang out festive peals my breathing came quicker andmy soul was tortured. What was I thinking of? I donot know ; but I felt deeply. I suffered, but I did notknow sorrow.

The deadly monotony and loneliness of those earlyyears is undoubtedly responsible for the note of sadnessthat is present in almost all Segantini's pictures. Butthis solitary life was not altogether uncongenial tohim, for even in after years he always kept aloof fromthe world, and lived only among his peasants, hismountain folk, and his peaks. The love of solitudewas ingrained in his nature.His amusements, as may well be imagined, werefew, and such as they were he had to make them forhimself. One day, I know not how, I got hold ofsome paper, I think it was a book. I played with itfor a little : then I tore it up into small pieces, eversmaller and smaller, like snow-flakes. And I had anidea. From the window of the landing I began to

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIthrow the little bits into the court below. This gameamused me. Those little white things danced andgambolled in the air, rested gently on the sills of thewindows, descended slowly to the ground like livingpeople who were afraid of hurting themselves. After Ihad been amusing myself thus for a few minutes I hearda terrible voice as of a man in anger rise up from below,I did not understand what he said, as he spoke indialect ; but I gathered from his tone that he did notapprove of my game ; when he ceased, and I thoughtthat he had gone, I threw out my whole store of bits ofpaper. Then a wonderful thing happened ; the snow-storm spread out and for a moment hid the little court.I leaned over the window-sill to enjoy the spectacle, andI followed the white cloud with my eyes as it danceddown to the ground. Suddenly I noticed a man with abroom looking up at me. The end of the matter wasthat the child was severely thrashed, first by the porterand then, on her return, by his sister. The nextmorning she locked him up in his room and took the keyaway in her pocket.

I cried a little; then I noticed a large bo.x in a cornerof the room. I opened it ; it was full of a thousanddifferent thingsfemale attire, ribbons, old gloves, somedomino masks, and at the bottom a lot of cassia sticks,which I put aside with the mask to play with. Themask was w hat I had longed for. I had wanted to haveone ever since I was at y\rco, but I wanted a large,

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIwhole, coloured, living mask like some which I had seenand which had frightened me. Still I was content withthis half mask, and I put it on. But it was too largeand I could not see properly ; I went to a looking-glassand, oh, horror I tore it off and looked at it. I cast itback into the box ; I tried not to think of it, and satdown to play with the sticks. Still I soon tired of them,and not having anything to do I was seized with astrange fear. A mouse crossed the room and I becamemore afraid. I opened the box again to put back thecassia sticks, and I saw the mask with one glittering eyestaring at me. I dropped the lid, I did not scream, butmy heart beat violently ; I ran to the door and it waslocked. Then I pushed a chair near the table andclimbed on to the latter, looked out of the window atthe sky, and sang at the top of my voice.

When I stopped singing I felt dreadfully lonely,and very thirsty. I made an effort, and turned to lookat the jug ; but the room seemed dark, and filled withshadows. I again turned my head and tried to sing, butI had no more the will nor the power to do so. Iremained thus for a long time, suffering from thirst andfear, thinking of the time when my father used to takeme about in the town and in the public gardens, and buyme fruit. These memories made me cry, and I cried agreat deal. It was dusk. I no longer gazed at the sky,but I leaned my head against the wall, half asleep. . . .When my sister returned, I was asleep on the table.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIShe woke me up ; at first I was scared, then I under-stood, recognised her, threw my arms round her neck,and cried, begging her not to shut me up again. Whenshe had lit a light, and saw the disorder I had made, shescolded me, and opened the box to put back the things.I at once looked at the mask, which was still there withits glittering eye. My sister took it up, and threw it onthe bed, to tidy up the things in the box ; then I sawthat what had frightened me was only a steel buckleshining through one of the eye-holes.

The next day the door was left open, but I wasordered not to leave the room. This I promised not todo ; but I did not keep my promise. A few daysf later Iwas again established on the landing, as before ; but Ithrew nothing out of the window. Day followed day inmonotonous succession. One morning, when I wasreturning from buying our foodfor my sister hadtaught me, not without difficulty, to do her these littleservices I saw on the landing and in the passage severalvessels and pails, brushes, and colours. The sight ofthese unexpected and unusual objects aroused in me alively excitement. It was a feeling of joy mixed withuneasiness^joy at the novelty of the things, uneasinessat their unknown nature. I asked myself the wholemorning, what will happen? What will be done withthose things? And I ate but little. Then, when mysister left, I went out to watch, and stopped in a corner,seeing a tall man, who, with a large brush, was painting

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIthe wall over and over again with white paint. I looked,but it did not amuse me at all : the result did not answerto the excitement of expectation. I was disappointed.Seeing the colours in the pots and papers, I thought thatsomething more interesting might be done with them.

This curious excitement at the sight of paints andbrushes aroused in a child who was quite ignorant oftheir uses is highly significant.

But it was not yet over ; after the whitewash the tallman began to draw lines up and down ; and the next daywith half a potful of red paint dissolved in water and abig sponge which he dipped into it now and again, hebegan to dab the walls, leaving only the ceiling white andthe wainscot of a dark even colour. I watched this partof the work with the liveliest interest ; after a time I gotused to the splashes of colour, for I must confess that atfirst I was not satisfied with them, and that they actuallyrepelled me. But after gazing at them for some time Ibegan to see something in them ; there was an Austriansoldier, his body bending forward, with long arms,beating a big drum ; this was on a cart drawn by a largedog; but no, it was not a cart, it was a bridge, and a manwas leaning over a parapet ; that man was not my father,but he was very like him. Then I returned to thesoldier and the dog ; they were no longer there, and, tomy great surprise, I saw nothing more than shapelessdabs. I remained a long time absorbed in thought. Inthose dabs I saw a varied life, full of stranije beasts and

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIdeformed creatures, that appeared and disappeared atever)- glance. From a sad and melancholy scene, afantastic, a ridiculous picture was formed. On thosewalls I saw a whole world of weird dreams, but the dreamI was seeking, my constant longing, was green fields,clear brooks flowing over beds of fine sand, my littlegarden at Arco, those cool and shady nooks which Iloved.

While I was thus dreaming and nursing thesevisions of home, the winter came, and I could no moreremain on the landing. I had to shut myself up inmy room with a scaldiuo which I filled every morningfrom a baker's oven for a few centesi)ni. With thisfeeble warmth, without light, without sky, I passedmy sad days, and all thought of green things and bluevanished from my mind ; all the shapes disappeared, inmy head was darkness. I understood joy no more,and sorrow was gone.

From these recollections it is clear that Segantini wasof a highly sensitive nature, and that he had a vividimagination. At the same time there is a great na'ivetiin his story; something childlike in his character remainedthroughout his life.

The spring returned, and I began again to pass mydays on the landing. One morning, when I was staringvacantly out of the window without thinking of anything,I heard some neighbours gossiping ; they were speakingof someone who had left Milan while still quite young

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIand had walked the whole way to France, where heaccomplished great things ; I do not remember his name,but I think he was the hero of some novel. It was arevelation to me. It was, then, possible to leave thatlanding and go forth far away ? . . . I knew the road,for my father had pointed it out to me one day fromPiazza Castillo. 'There,' he had said, 'the French andPiedmontese troops entered Milan in triumph throughthat arch ; that arch and that road were built byNapoleon I.; the road must lead over the mountains toFrance.' And the idea of going to France by that roadhas never left me since. It refreshes my spirit, and fillsit with new and smiling visions, leading my thoughts togreen things, blue skies, mountains, glittering brooks,free light, and to the sun.

At last the child decided to go. With a piece ofbread in his pocket he left Milan one day by the Arcodella Pace, and set forth along the high road. Iremember it was a hot, airless day ; but all that light, thebrilliant sun, the fields, the trees made me drunk with ajoy that lifted me up as though I had wings ; still, attimes, my thoughts would return involuntaril)- to thelittle landing, to my sister, and in my heart I felt pangsas of remorse. But I walked on and on, nibbling mybread and stopping to drink at streams and springs ;I passed through several villages, in which I did notnotice anything particular. The child wanderer walkedon across the burning Lombard plain until ni^ht-

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIjade, to whom trotting was a serious effort, emanating awhitish vapour like a fog. I was comfortably cuddled upin a hamper ; after having looked all around me I gazedat the old man, whose face I could see distinctly ; heseemed to be a good old man, and I felt reassured,thinking that he could do me no harm. I remember thatafter looking at him for some time his head seemed tagrow wonderfully large, so large that it could not becarried by a human body ; and I fell asleep again.

When I awoke I found myself in a little cot, halfundressed ; a short stout woman was taking off my shoes.I gazed around. I was in a large room ; in the middle ofit there was a table at which the old man and the youngone who had picked me up were seated, eating out of ablack earthenware bowl. The woman took off my shirt,which was as wet as if it had been dipped in water, andthen left the bed and turned to the men, saying : ' See,the boy is awake ; he is so thin that I am afraid to touchhim.' Then from a rope stretched across the fireplaceshe took a shirt and put it on to me, nice and warm, andasked me my name. Then she lifted me up in her armsand placed me on a chair near the fire. She hung mywet clothes on the rope to dry, and brought me a plateof hot soup made of rice and beans, which I ate greedily.By this time the two men, having finished their meal,came near the fire, and together with the woman began toquestion me, speaking kindly. The child told them hisstory, and they began to discuss how best to send him

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIback to his sister the next day. But he told them that ifthey brought him back to Milan he would run away theday after. Seeing my obstinacy, they said : ' We shallkeep you here, poor little waif ; you need sunlight ; butwe are not rich, so that if you really want to stay youmust make yourself useful in some way.' I promised todo all that they would wish me to do. The followingday the woman cut my long thick locks, which came downto my shoulders. I remember her saying to anotherwoman who was looking on : ' This boy has more hair onhis head than all of us put together.' The other lookedat me and said : ' His profile is like that of a son ofthe King of France.' That day I became a swine-'herd ;I was barely seven years old.We have given these pages of early recollections

almost in full, as they show what things made mostimpression on Segantini in his childhood ; they arethe things which afterwards became the chief featuresof his pictures. Light and colour he yearned for mostpassionately, and these he enjoyed most when he couldsee them. The language he uses is so quaint andsimple, almost Biblical, that we have endeavoured torender it as closely as possible.

With these kindly contadini he remained some twoor three years. He lived the life of the fields and ofthe peasantry ; he shared their sorrows and their joys.Here his artistic tendencies were first manifested. Hetells how he was induced to attempt to draw. The

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIfirst time that I took up a pencil to draw was when Iheard a mother sobbing over her dead child, saying :' Oh that I had but her portrait, she was so beautiful ' Those words roused in the child a desire to draw aportrait of the dead girl for her mother. It mustindeed have been a strange picture, although no morebeautiful impulse to draw than this one could be arousedin an artist. What the drawing was like, and whatbecame of it, Segantini himself did not know. It isalso probable that he amused himself in his sparemoments by drawing the things he saw around himthe pigs, the sheep, the cattle, and the peasants ; butthe story of his being discovered drawing animals ona stone with a piece of charcoal, thus revealing hisgenius to some connoisseur, is in all probability nothingmore than a Giottoesque reminiscence.

A few years later Segantini left his kind friendson their Lombard farm and returned to Milan, partlyfrom a desire to see his sister again, and partly, perhaps,because he wished to have better opportunities ofdeveloping his talent. His destiny proved irresistible,and obliged him to leave his humble occupation anddevote himself to art.We next find him studying ornamental drawingat the Brera evening school. By day he worked fora living, though how he managed to live at all is notclear. He afterwards obtained a few drawing lessons,for which he was paid a wretched pittance. He was,

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIin fact, so poor that he could not even aftbrd to buyhimself a box of colours. For a time he was evenshut up in the Patronato for abandoned children.Having been found wandering about alone with no\dsible means of subsistence, he was taken up by thepolice and shut up in the reformatory, whence he escapedafter a few months, was recaptured some days later,and detained there for two years (until 1873). He wasmade to work as a cobbler, but he was allowed to dosome drawing as well. Some of his early attemptsare still kept in the Patronato, among which is a portraitof Prince (afterwards King) Humbert, together withthree of his Brera medals, given by him in pawn forsome money when he left.*

His thoughts during this first stage of his career maybe given in his own words :

It was a festa. With my elbows on the sill of mygarret window, I was looking out o\er the roofs andtowers of Milan in the light of the setting sun. Forsome days I had felt an undefined loneliness. I wasnineteen. An ardent desire for love was burning in mybrain.

On that day I had listened to an instrumentalconcert, and the music had e.xcited my thoughts to flightsof almost drunken fancy, in which forms of beautytwined and intertwined in rhythmic movement, faded likesmoke-wreaths, vanished in a rain of roses ... I was

* Giovanni Scgantini, by I'liiuo Levi, Koine, 1900.20


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIlulled in a dream of love. When I went out into the airI felt exalted. A smile shone upon my face. The facesI saw seemed only kindly ones. ... In this conditionof mind I visited an exhibition of modern art. Thepaintings seemed insignificant, mute. They had nopower to hold my thoughts. They were the work ofmen who had seen things and copied them on canvas.One, a landscape, in broad brush-work, seemed to pleasethe people about it. I saw nothing particular beyond thebroad brush strokes. For these people, then, I thought,the beauty of painting lies in painting with a big brush.

Thinking of all that, I found the light was failingand the lamps were lighting down the street. . . . Thatnight I told a friend, a student of sculpture at theAcademy, that the exhibition had not pleased me. Hesmiled with compassion, and told me that I knew nothingof art. . . . We parted wnth some coldness. . . .

The next day I entered the elementary figure classat the Academy, where I was already taking the eveningcourse of ornament. I remained there a few months,long enough to convince me of the uselessness ofacademic instruction for those born with a soul for artof the damage the academies do to real art in turning outa lot of painters who are not artists. *

His first box of colours was given to him, after hehad studied two years at the Brera, by Signor Bernacchi,one of his professors. He then determined to become a

'' The Studio, August 16, 1897.21


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIpainter and not a mere draughtsman. While at theAccademia he showed himself an innovator and refusedto be hide-bound by academic rules, and was consequentlynot regarded with favour by his teachers. With hisoriginality and independent spirit the classical teachingof the Accademia must have been most uncongenial tohim. All through his life he remained convinced ofthe uselessness of teaching art, and, as we shall haveoccasion to note, he often wrote and spoke on the subjectwith vehemence. When on the occasion of a littleexhibition of the pupils' drawings his own work wasbadly hung, he flew into a passion and destroyed it. Onmeeting the artist Bertini, to whom he attributed theslight, perhaps wrongly, he looked daggers at him, andbursting with rage he shook a lamp-post so violentlythat he broke the glass. He then left the Academy andwent to return to work on his own account.* The samespirit of opposition to academical instruction promptedhim some years later to refuse the diploma of honoraryassociate conferred on him by the same institution.

It is said that while studying at the Academy heworked in the studio of a painter of church banners ; thelatter once asked him what he would do if he were asgreat an artist as his master, to which Segantini replied Hang myself t A grocer of his acquaintance gave himhis first oil colours to paint a sign for him. He wishedto use what was left of the colours to paint a picture.

Levi's Giovanni Segantini, p. 7.t S. C. de Soissons in The Dome, April, 1895.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTININot being able to buy a canvas, he prepared one forhimself. This he did by dipping a sugar bag in oil andstretching it on a frame. On it he painted his first oilpicture, which was the Choir of the Church of Sant'Antonio. * With this picture he initiated the firstphase of his art, and it at once proved him to be aremarkable artist. It represents the interior of a choirwith carved stalls and high wainscotting. A choir-boy ina white surplice stands before a lectern, and high up onthe left is a large window whence the sunlight poursin. It is said that Segantini in painting this picturediscovered that the secret of obtaining light lay individing the colours, i.e., in putting them on to the canvasside by side so as to let them blend in the eye of theobserver, instead of mixing them on the palette. It wasnoticed that the light was exceptionally vivid, owing tothis method. One of the artist's fellow-students wroteof it : It was at once noticed that from that paintedwindow the light really poured in. At that time he(Segantini) certainly did not know that there was ascientific theory of divisionism, and in fact no one hadas yet attempted that method in painting.

Segantini did not paint in that way, so to speak, onprinciple. He merely found that he could thus obtaincertain effects which were otherwise unobtainable. Buthe had not yet elaborated the system, this attempt beingonly an experiment. In many of the pictures he painted

* S. C. de Soissons in The Dome, April, 1895.t T. Bresciani, Giovanni Segantini, Arco, 1900.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIsubsequently, divisionism was practically discarded ; hedid not again take it up and perfect it until many yearslater. This is what he wrote with regard to the question : During this time I painted my first picture in oils,'The Choir of the Church of Sant' Antonio.' I certainlydid not intend to produce a work of art, but only to trymy strength in painting. Through an open window, atorrent of light fell upon the carved stalls of the choir.In endeavouring to paint this effect, I found that mixingthe colours on the palette gave me neither light norreality, but that by using them pure, and laying themside by side on the canvas, in the quantities I shouldhave used in mixing them upon my palette, and thusleaving the eye, looking at the painting from a distance,to blend them together, gave an effect of more air, morelight, and consequently of more reality. This secret, nowa proven fact, had been perceived by painters of all timesand all countries, the first of whom was Fra Angelico.It came to mc through my loving and earnest studyof nature, and as something personal and individual. .

Divisionism never became a mannerism with him, forno one knew better than he that neither divisionism nor pointillism, or any other ism is sufficient of itself toproduce a good picture.

I do not know anything, he wrote, for which Ifeel a greater repugnance than for so-called scientificsystems materially applied to art. Art should certainlynot reject the discoveries of science ; but it should, by

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINItheir means, find the secrets of nature, and translatethem, through nature, into a picture. Otherwise itwill not be an achievement of art ; it will remain anachievement of science.

This picture was painted in 1879, and exhibited atthe Brera, where the artist obtained a silver medal. Itsstriking qualities attracted the attention of Signor VittoreGrubicy, the artist and art-critic, who became Segantini'sguide, philosopher, and friend for many years ; although,during the last phase of his career, they disagreed onmany questions connected with art.

Other pictures followed in quick succession, in whichSegantini felt his \\-ay ; now trying one style of work,now another, seeking to discover in which direction hisreal vocation lay. La Falconiera, Un Prode strange painting of a dead hero lying naked on his back,seen in a curious but cleverly executed perspectivePiccole Stalle, La Ninetta dal Verzee (a fish-\\ife),La Castellana, and some studies in still life, are thechief paintings of this period. In most of these earlyattempts there is only one, or at most two, figures. Anexception is a diptych, called Sacred Art. In theleft-hand panel ( Allora ) there is a monk painting aHoly Family, while another is looking on at his work.Both seem to be in rapt devotion. In the right-handpanel ( Oggi ) there is a man attached to a cross, asa model for a crucifixion. The artist and another man

^ The Dome, April, 1899.25


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIare looking at the picture on the easel, in companywith two women. Both panels have become very darkand discoloured. In subject and in treatment thissomewhat ambitious composition is very different fromall Segantini's other pictures. It is a not particularlyhappy attempt in a line more successfully followed byartists of the French school. Of his attempts at portraitpainting none are in any way remarkable. It was astyle of work to which he did not devote himself untilseveral years later, and even then he did not becomea regular portrait painter.

Most of these works are strikingly realistic, andshow a latent power in the artist which was, at thattime, still undeveloped. Some few critics and friendsalready divined that Segantini would some day achievegreat things. Signor Grubicy summed up his workas follows :

Thinking over this first part of your work, I findthat your powerful and bellicose nature, which pressedyou onward, and also your financial difficulties, distractedyou from the pure and simple study of nature. He alsocriticised the darkness of his colouring, caused partly bythe colours he used, and partly by the research after vividcontrasts of light and shade.

Segantini himself wrote :At this time Tranquillo Cremona (the head of the

Lombard school of painting) died, much lamented bythe younger men, who worshipped him. Mos6 Bianchi

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIof Monza succeeded him. From the Brera school cameforth artists full of promise, who seemed to herald a truerenaissance of Lombard art. I looked upon thismovement without taking part in it.

For a few years Segantini continued to live in Milan,working hard, and with a certain measure of success.But life in this city did not satisfy him ; genre subjectsand still life studies were not the true channels intowhich his talent was destined to flow. He now felt anirresistible longing, as he had felt when a child, for greenfields and blue skies and nature. He left the dull, foggycity in the plain, and retired into the Brianza, a fertiledistrict between the two branches of the Lake of Como, aland of villas and gardens, of rich soil, and grain andwine. I withdrew, he wrote, among the hills andlakes of the Brianza, convinced that painting could notbe limited to colour for colour's sake, but that it could, ifput to good use, express feelings of love, of sorrow, ofpleasure, and of sadness. When I was settled in theBrianza, however, I did not study these ideas of mineon the expressive harmony of colouring, but I tried toreproduce the feelings I felt, especially at twilight, whenmy soul was filled with sweet melancholy. This lastedfrom 1882 to 1886. *

From this moment Segantini's real artistic career maybe said to begin.

* Domcnico Tumiati's article on Segantini in L'Arte, Rome, 1898, p. 304.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIpure and simple, and painted pictures in which figurewas not the chief element. Now Segantini begins reallyto develop. Hitherto he had been feeling his way in thedark, but now he sees in nature and in the life of thefields his first goal.This period of Segantini's art has by some been

called the Millet period, and his work has been oftencompared with that of the great French artist. Thereis undoubtedly a certain outward resemblance betweenthe two painters, but it is owed more to the fact thatboth artists lived in the country amid peasants, and thatboth were subjected to the same impressions, rather thanto the fact that the one imitated or was directly influencedby the other. Segantini, as we have said, knew little ornothing of other artists and of their work. He had, ofcourse, seen the Brera gallery, but the influence of Luinion him must indeed have been slight. He had neverseen the great picture galleries of Rome or Florence, or offoreign cities. The modern schools, save for an occasionalpicture in some small exhibition in Milan, were also un-known to him. He had seen the work of Cremona, andof the other artists of the modern Lombard school, butthey scarcely exercised any influence whatever on him.He had never seen one of Millet's pictures, and knew hiswork only through a collection of engravings sent to himby Signor Grubicy. He painted the same subjects asMillet, and consequently his paintings do remind us ofMillet's. He found out for himself many of the truths

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIfirst discovered by the Barbizon impressionists. But hewent even further than they did. Where they suggestedand hinted, he unhesitatingly marched forward andinnovated. As M. Robert de la Sizeranne rightlyobserves,* the Barbizon impressionist school marks agreat progress in landscape painting, but it seems unableto produce anything but studies. They are beautifulstudies, masterpieces in their way, but they are notpictures. They have achieved one of the desiderata ofthe eye that loves to see light vibrating, but none ofthe othersplasticity of form in living creatures andinanimate objects. Consequently they make but atransitory impression on us. But Segantini, while heappreciates the importance of light, is gifted with a geniusfor composition, and he has mastered the technique ofthe line and of the mass. Although the first impressionwe receive from his pictures is one of light, shimmering,vibrating light, he has not sacrificed form to it. Hisfigure drawing, although simple, is masterly and powerful,and his composition is full of deep poetical feeling.Segantini may be regarded as the natural heir to theFrench impressionists, not because he imitated them, butbecause he realised some of their discoveries, having beensubjected to the same influences, and carried themfurther on.

In the pictures Segantini painted in the Brianzathat feeling of sadness which was to be the key-note

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIof all his work first makes its appearance. It was thesadness born of his dreary childhood, of the deadlymonotony of those endless grey days in the Milan garret.In the first flush of youth and life, when he began topaint and was conscious of his own power, the elementof sadness was for the moment obscured. But whenhe went into the country and watched the toiling livesof the peasants, it reappeared, never again to leave him.The hill country of Northern Italy is rich and fertile,but the peasants are poor. Their life is one long toil,and there is much sadness in their existence. Thisnote is expressed by Segantini in a curious manner.It will be noticed that in nearly all his Brianza paintingsthe heads of the figures are slightly bent forward.Sometimes his peasants are bending down to theirwork, as in the Potato Harvest, in The Toiler ofthe Earth, in The Shepherd's Income, in Sheep-shearing, in all of which man is seen earning his breadby the sweat of his brow. Or again the figure is bentlow under the weight of a heavy burden, as in TheLast Task of the Day, in which an old peasant iswalking down a hill-side almost bent double by a burdenof firewood which he is carrying ; he is followed bya few sheep, the background is lit up by the last raysof a pale sunset. In others, Segantini's subjects bendtheir heads down in utter weariness after the day's workis done, as in Sad Hours. This too is a sunsetscene ; a girl is sitting bent over a fire watching a vessel

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIboiling. She is at rest after the day's work is done,and wrapt in sad thought. Opposite to her is a cowlowing, and behind a flock of sheep is returning to thefold. In the distance are the low hills of the Brianza.All is peace and rest, and melancholy is in the air-This attitude is also expressive of resignation andreligious faith, a religion of humility and sadness whichis that of the Lombard contadino. This note is mostconspicuous in the beautiful Ave Maria a Trasbordo,a composition of which Segantini painted severalversions.

A second motif is that of sympathy between men andthe lower animals. Segantini has painted a large numberof pictures in which this note is expressed. The simplestform of expressing it is that of a flock of sheep with theirshepherd or shepherdess. Such a picture is Gregge inCammino ; another is his Moonlight Effect, a flockof sheep trotting along a road at night with a shepherdess.The painting is instinct with the sympathy that existsbetween man and beast in that lowly sphere of life. Thelong wearisome march during the hot day or the chillynight, the monotonous tinkling of the bells, the girl's headbent down like that of her chargesall is expressive ofthat common feeling of sympathy. The sheep are outlinedin white light, and they cast long black shadows on theroad. The procession extends into the background ofthe picture, and disappears round the bank in a sea ofcurved backs. The sheep in all these pictures, like the

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIhuman beings, are humble and poor. There is but littleresemblance between them and plump, well-fed Englishor Scotch sheep. They are thin and small, and whenthey are shorn they look miserable indeed.

The other manner of expressing this feeling of sym-pathy is through the sentiment of motherly love. Mother-hood in Segantini's eyes was always the most sacredand pure thing in the world. He had himself lost hismother at a very early age, and in those dreary years ofchildhood in Milan he must have often felt the wantof a mother's tender care. He painted a whole series ofpictures of maternal love, beginning with these scenesof peasant life in the Brianza, and ending up with themost obscure symbolic compositions of his last phase.In his work motherly love is not only the love of themother for her child, or that of the sheep for her lamb,but it extends further, to the love of the shepherdess forher sheep, and to the higher love of Providence for all thecreatures of the earth. There is one little painting ofSegantini's called Uno di Piu ( One More ), whichexpresses, I think, this feeling of motherhood as a bondof sympathy between man and beast more beautifullythan any of his other works. A storm-swept sky, anddrenching rain, the usual flock of sheep walking along theusual high road, and the ground is churned up by theviolent rain. But a lamb has just been born on themarch ; the shepherdess has gathered it up, and is carr)ingit in her arms with infinite tenderness, and is sheltering

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIit from the rain under her broad umbrella. The motheris trotting by her side, looking up at her offspring inwonderment, not quite sure whether to be sorry at havingit taken from her, or glad that it is being so well caredfor. A pale light passes through the umbrella on to thebacks of the sheep, imparting to them a faint greenishhue. The whole composition is full of pathos, andbespeaks a feeling of the widest sympathy and kind-ness. It is the symbol of birth in times of storm andstress, of the struggle for life in the most adverse cir-cumstances.

Another variation of the same theme is The TwoMothers. A woman is hurr)ang homewards with herchild. By her side is a sheep with its lamb. The littleparty is walking up a gentle incline towards a house onthe hill. Beyond is an open undulating country, and atree near the house stands out black against the horizon.The sun has just set, but the soft Abendglith remains.Here, too, there is the common bond of motherhoodbetween the woman and the sheep. Both wish to reachhome before darkness sets in, for both wish to protecttheir offspring from the chill night air. Throughout hiscareer Segantini has again and again reverted to this ideaof maternal lo\'e. The s)^mbol, which in these earlierpictures is simple and natural, afterwards becomes deeperand more intense, and one of the last pictures of thisseries which he called Mothers is that weird andfantastic composition The Punishment of the Wicked

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIMothers. No greater contrast could be found thanbetween the latter and Uno di Piii, but in both thereis the same Leitmotif on which he insists with theinsistence of a Wagner or a Zola.

A clever little study is Piccole Pecore, a processionof round fluffy sheep under a storm-swept sky. It ismerely a sketch, but full of charm and feeling. In allthese paintings there is a note of gentle sadness ; it isgenerally an undefinable sadness at the sorrow of life,but occasionally Segantini would choose some definitetragedy for his subject, of which the motif is the cruelpoignant grief caused by some particular occurrence.Thus in The Empty Cradle it is the mother's grief atthe death of her child ; in The Orphans it is thefeeling of utter loneliness and desolation of the childrenat the loss of their mothera loss which they only halfunderstand, although they are thoroughly conscious of thesense of something that is gone out of their lives. Inthis latter picture, which was probably inspired by theartist's recollection of his own motherless childhood, alittle girl is sitting on a chairthe dead mother's chairby the fireside, with her little brother cuddled up in herarms. Her head is bending over him as though toprotect him. The kettle on the fire is just beginning toboil, but the orphans are looking at it in a listless way,as if they felt too hopeless and lost to attend to thecares of daily life. It is twilight, and a cold light iscoming in from the window, forming a contrast with the

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIwarm light of the fire, and casting a reflection on thefloor. We see through it a sad sky with no landscape,and on the sill a flower-pot without flowers. Each objectin the scene is in harmony with every other, and helpsto emphasise the feeling of hopeless gloom cast by theGreat Shadow.

But if there is sadness in Segantini's pictures ofpeasant life, it is, as we have said, a resigned sadness.His peasants feel that they are born to that life ofceaseless toil, and regard the fact merely as a hardnecessity. There is no idea of revolt or anger againstthose who are better off than themselves ; for, if they arepoor, at least Nature is a kindly mother to them, andsupplies their modest wants. There is not in them thatsordid and degrading poverty which we see in some ofMillet's French peasants. In one of the latter's pictures,called Rest after Toil, there is a single figure of apeasant, sitting down on the ground, with his legs wideapart, staring vacantly before him. It is a wonderfulpiece of drawing, and in the man's face there is anexpression of sordid brutality and savagery, engenderedby hard and hopeless toil. It does not seem quite inharmony with what we are told of the prosperity andcontentedness of the French peasant proprietor, but, ifit is a true picture, it may help to explain those suddenoutbursts of ferocity which have from time to timedrenched the soil of France in bloodfrom theJacquerie to the present day. There is nothing of

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIthis in Segantini's peasants, for cruelty was abhorrentto him, and he never painted it ; it is, indeed,rarely found in the humble country folk of Lombardyamong whom he lived. He did not paint the moreviolent emotions of life, neither passionate love, norhatred, nor revolt ; battle, murder, and sudden death donot find a place in his art. This feeling of resignationreaches the highest level of expression in Segantini'sreligious compositions. These do not correspond withthe generally accepted idea of a religious picture. Thereare no Madonnas, nor saints, nor Christs in this periodof his art. He painted religion in the expressions andattitudes of his contadini.

The first painting of this character is A Kiss tothe Cross a shepherdess who, while passing withher flocks by a roadside crucifix, lifts up her childthat it may kiss the figure of the Saviour. Anotheris a study, called At the Cross, of a woman kneel-ing down before the cross to pray, while her flockpasses onwards. In these two studies the religiousobservances of daily life are represented : in the one it isthe teaching of religion to the child, in the other it is thesimple request for a blessing. Then came the AveMaria a Trasbordo, one of the artist's most beautifulpictures. It is filled with an intense feeling of religionof religion in the human beings, in the animals, innature. There is the little lake, one of the many lakesthat are nestled among the Brianza hills, calm and glassy

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIand shimmering in the evening light. The scene remindsone of Dante's lines :

Era gia 1' ora che volge il disioAi naviganti, e intenerisce il cuoreLo di ch' han detto ai dolci amici addio ;E che lo nuovo peregrin d' amorePunge se ode squilla di lontanoChe paia il giorno pianger che si muore.

A boat is crossing the water, a flat-bottomed boat withhoops for an awning from side to side, one of the kindwhich are to be found on all the lakes of North Italy. Ashepherd is rowing in the bow ; a woman with her childsits in the stern ; there is also a little flock of sheep onboard. Across the water we see a low-lying shore, onwhich there is a village with its tall needle-like steeplepointing up to heaven. Behind the horizon the sun issinking. There is a great depth of feeling in this com-position, of universal religion, and of peace. It has beenmore often compared with Millet's work than any other ofSegantini's pictures, because in Millet's Angelus thereis a somewhat similar ideathat of toil being interruptedto listen to the church bells calling to prayer. Withregard to this comparison M. Robert de la Sizeranne hassaid :

In these two scenes conceived so far from each otherthere is the same inspiring idea. In Segantini's picturewe divine that in the slender point of the belfry bloomsthe flower of the ' Angelus.' That is why the motherbends down more and presses her child ever nearer to her

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIheart, while the sky pours round the two heads a wealthof light and golden aureoles, and all things around loomso large. Never more than in this picture have werealised the phrase ' One flock, one shepherd.' *

According to William Ritter,t the novelty of themotif m Segantini's picture lies in the fact that it is thewoman in the boat that suggests the idea of the AveMaria, and not the church steeple ; not because her headis bowed, but because she is a mother and looks like aMadonna.

In the Ave Maria Segantini shows himself to be agreat mastera master of drawing, of composition, andof poetic feeling. Afterwards he was to develop hiscolouring and his light. But even this light of the AveMaria, although it does not reach that perfection andbrilliance which is to be found in his Alpine work, isvivid and powerful. The manner in which he outlinesthe backs of the sheep in curved lines of light shows hisever-growing force in that direction. But it is above allthe sentiment which stamps this as the work of a trueartist. The woman and the man in the bows both bendtheir heads as the evensong is tolled forth, and from theirlips we can almost hear the whispered words AveMaria, gratia plena.

Segantini painted the Ave Maria at Pusiano in1882, when he was but twenty-five years old. He sent itto an exhibition at Milan, when it was rejected, but it

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIwas accepted and exhibited in the Amsterdam Exhibitionof 1883, and greatly admired, the artist receiving the goldmedal for it.

About this time Segantini made one or two attemptsin a somewhat different direction. One was a littlepicture called The Bird's Nest. Two nuns in their bigwhite hats are looking over a garden wall at a bird's nest.

A branch covered with blossoms gives a decorative noteto the study. Another theme is his Pifferari inBrianza, an interior scene, and a more purely genresubject. A group of women attired in the picturesquecostume of the Brianza peasantry, and wearing thosecurious trophies of silver pins in their hair familiar tothose who know the Lake of Como, are listening to acouple of men playing the bagpipes. There is a smallchild in a basket on the floor, and some new-bornchickens hopping about. It is a typical interior ofNorthern Italy, but, although cleverly executed, it haslittle of Segantini's usual charm. The note of sadness iswanting, and without it the artist seems to lose hispower to entrance the spectator. His friend, Sig. VittoreGrubicy, with whom he kept up an active correspondence,and who often visited him, now told him that what heneeded most was to develop his colouring. He said thatalthough his work from the point of view of drawing,composition, and sentiment was excellent, there was stillsomething artificial and not quite true to nature in hiscolouring. Hence he advised him to devote himself for a

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINItime to the study of nature pure and simple, so as todevelop his lights more highly. To emphasise hissuggestions he sent the young artist a collection ofstudies by the Dutch painter Mauve, to show him howmuch might be obtained with the most simple materials.Segantini determined to take his friend's advice, and forsome time afterwards he painted a series of pictures inwhich landscape formed the most important element.But he thought it advisable to leave Pusiano and searchfor new subjects. He rented Carlo Cattaneo s old villa atCastagnola, where he stayed some little time ; but hefound the neighbourhood too cultivated and too thicklypopulated for his taste. So he filled a cart with hisimpedimenta, and scoured the country for a morecongenial resting-place, and finally decided on Carella,where he remained for some time.

Segantini now began what may be termed the secondphase of his Brianza period. Hitherto he had paintedpictures in which figure played the chief part, andlandscape merely lent its aid to show up the humanbeings and the animals. In this second phase, on theother hand, he initiated a series of pictures painted ina broader and more luminous manner. He devotedhimself for a few years to the study of nature alone,trying to fathom her innermost recesses and to wringfrom her her most hidden secrets, and to understandall her changes of mood. Every evening at twilighthe would sit by the window, his forehead against the

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIpanes, and remain there gazing at the sky until nightfell.*

The first work of this series was A Messa Prima ( At Early Mass '). It is an early morning effecta broad flight of steps leading up to a raised platform onwhich a barocco church rises with its columned porticoand heavily decorated facade of broken up lines. Anold priest is slowly ascending the steps, his head bentforward in meditation. He is holding his breviar}^behind his back, and is marking the place with his finger.He is in no hurry, for it is still very early, the sunhaving only just risen. Here, too, humble toil andburdens patiently borne are exemplified, for the life ofthe Italian parish priest in a remote country districtis little less hard than that of his flock. He seemsalmost lost in the wide flight of steps, even as he, thesingle unit, is lost in the vast overpowering machineryof the Church of Rome. The picture is painted inbroad brush strokes and powerful sweeping outlines.We realise to the full the artist's thorough masteryover technique. Here there is no useless detail, no' finnicking

' ; all is stately and grand. But there inthe upper left hand corner the church, which is insunlight, is shimmering white, and the details of thearchitecture are set forth with the minutest care, lendingforce to the grey masses in the rest of the painting.

This canvas originally bore a different composition. Levi's GiovHiini Sc-};iintiiii, p. 25.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIInstead of the priest ascending the steps, an unfortunategirl was descending them, her face buried in her hands.It was called Unabsolved. But Segantini was notsatisfied with the result, and repainted the whole picturein the form in which it now appears. Afterwards hemade a second version of A Messa Prima called The Last Mass an evening effect. He also utilisedthe same mise-en-scdne for a different subject, calledThe Blessing of the Sheep (or St. Sebastian's Day ).A priest in stole and surplice is standing half way upthe steps with three choir-boys. Below a flock of sheepare passing, and the priest reads from a book held byone of the boys and blesses the little procession. Thisblessing of the sheep on St. Sebastian's Day is an oldcustom in the Brianza, possibly derived from the beliefthat St. Sebastian's aid is efficacious against disease.There are here the same qualities of breadth and strengthas in Early Mass, while the row of picturesquetumble-down houses on the right imparts by contrastan air of majesty to the church on the left.The next picture in this broader manner is La

Tosatura delle Pecore ( Sheep-shearing ). Two youthsare engaged in shearing sheep under a shed. One isstanding up shearing a sheep's breast, the other is seatedon the ground with his victim across his legs. Behinda number of sheep are awaiting their turn in anenclosure, and watching the proceedings with an air ofdreamy indifference. All round are masses of browny-

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIwhite wool. The overhanging roof of the shed comeslow down, leaving only a narrow belt of brilliant morningsky between itself and the horizon of hills. The backsof the sheep are sketched out in wav)'^ lines of light, inSegantini's favourite manner. There is, too, that samefeeling of sympathy and kindliness between the shearersand the shorn that subsists in other pictures betweenthe shepherd and the flock. The shearers are doing theirwork skilfully and quickly, but taking care not to hurtthe sheep, while the latter seem almost conscious thattheir wool belongs of right to their lords and masters.The foreground is of a thick rich hue, a mixture of mudand wool, forming an effective ground-work on which toplace the figures and other objects : it is a system oftenpractised by this artist. The dark low roof and shadowyinterior of the shed are in sharp contrast with thebrightly lit up parts of the background. It is a powerfulstudy of light and shade. Such contrasts had beenattempted by Segantini ever since the beginning of hiscareer ; but in his early work the contrast was tooglaring, with the result that the rest of the picture wasoften sacrificed to it. Now he had mastered the difficulty,and succeeded in producing a vivid contrast withoutdisturbing the general harmony. Sheep-shearing wasexhibited at the Antwerp Exhibition of 1885.

A variation of this same theme is The Shepherd'sIncome, an old man shearing a sheep. The com-position is much simpler than in the former picture, there

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AVE MARIA A TUASBORDO.

[To }aci p. 44-


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIbeing only two figures, the shepherd and the sheep, andthere is no contrast of light and shade, but the idea isthe same.

In this year Segantini also painted Alia Stanga( At the Tether ), a large picture which, as Signor Levisays, gave the keynote to this phase of simple smoothpainting, a limpid vision of true realism. * It wasexecuted at Caglio in the Valassina, and depicts a localcustom. In that part of Lombardy the pasture lands areheld in common by the village communities, and eachfarmer has his own tether, round which his cattle aregathered every evening when they return from pasture.In this painting a number of cattle are standing or lyingdown near the different staiighe or tethers. A couple ofmilkmaids have come up to them, awaiting the hour formilking the cows. It is stormy weather, and there arethreatening black clouds in the sky ; it is raining onthe distant hills. But from between the clouds thesun's rays illumine the landscape here and there, makingbright patches of light. It may be sunny and clear onemoment, pouring with rain the next, then cloudy andmuggy. There are a few trees scattered about the plain ;the soil is bursting with richness and fertility. Themuddy foreground with its rich vegetation is carefullydrawn, and gives an air of solidity and strength to thewhole composition. We see here the magna parensfrttgtim, Satitrnia tellnsa soil that produces without

* Giovanni Segantini, p. 17.45


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIHe went with his wife through the whole length of theVal Seriana, and then over an extremely difficult mountainpass he descended into the Valtellina. Thence they wentup the Val di Livigno to the village of Livigno, one ofthe highest inhabited spots in Europe, situated to thenorth-east of the Bernina Pass, and north-west ofBormio, in Italian territory. The place would havesuited Segantini, as the scenery was just what he wasseeking for. But he found that it was a land whereevery prospect pleases, and only man is vile. Thenatives proved most hostile, and because the artist andhis wife did not attend Mass the day after they arrived,things were made so unpleasant for them that they wereobliged to leave, almost to fly. The Segantinis wentov-er another pass, and down into the Poschiavo valley;thence over the Bernina, always on foot, to Silvaplana.From Silvaplana they drove over the Julier Pass toSavognino, a few miles south of Tiefenkasten, on theroad to Coire. There their wanderings ended, for theartist felt that this was the place for him. He renteda small house built by a native who had made money inAmerica. With his usual somewhat thoughtless gene-rosity he offered the owner a hundred and fifty francs asa guarantee, and this being accepted, he found himselfin consequence without a penny in his pocket. He wentback to Caglio to fetch his children, and returned withthem to Savognino. where he spent the ne.xt fi\-e years.In that high and limpid atmosphere he initiated a series

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIof pictures in which the subjects and the method ofpainting were absolutely new.

In reviewing Segantini's Brianza work, we cannotfail to be struck, in the first place, by its naturalness andsimplicity. He has not followed schools, manners, orsystems, nor has he striven to be strange and originalfor originality's sake. He has painted the tale ofcommon things, the humble lives of honest toil, allthe varying changes of the atmosphere; the catspaw onthe lake, the sudden storms bursting like a sob on thecornfields and hills, followed by torrential rains ; thegrey lights of dusk, sunset, and sunrise, brilliant mid-day effects, and moonlight scenes. He was fond ofsharp contrasts of light and shade ; but twilight andearly dawn were the hours in which he loved best topaint, as being more in harmony with his own frameof mind. Sadness, as we have seen, is the keynote ofall his work, but it is not an unwholesome, pessimisticsadness. He does not tell us that all is for the worstin the worst of all possible worlds, but he rather seemsto say that in the world there is sorrow and suffering,but that there is also love and kindliness and sympathy,and that, with resignation and humility, much may beborne. Thy will be done, is Segantini's motto. Inthis sadness there is something not quite Italian. Inthe deep greens of his foregrounds, in the dark andmystic shadows, in his storm-swept skies, and in thepained and sorrowing expressions of his men and his

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIanimals, there is a foreign element. Signer Levi said ofhim : He remains a foreigner in Italy ; to foreignershe is an Italian. * Afterwards, among the peaks ofthe Engadine, the Northern element in his art and inhis character was to become more marked, and hissymbolism was to show the influence of German andScandinavian thought.

Another characteristic of Segantini's work in thisperiod, which he maintained throughout his career, isthe sense of harmony. This harmony is expressed bymaking each figure and each natural object play up toall the others, so as to give greater force to the ideahe wishes to represent. In this he is not alwaysentirely true to nature, for in real life we often see vividcontrasts of joy and sorrow, of good and evil ; butSegantini's art is essentially subjective, and he interpretsnature according to his own feelings. The more realisticphase of Alia Stanga, Sheep-shearing, and AtEarly Mass was a preparation for his study of naturein the high Alps, but it is always imaginative and poeticrealism. This idea of harmony is expressed in variousformsthe harmony of nature with living things, thelove of the mother for her child, the love of man foranimals, the common bond of motherhood. The con-trasts which he paints are contrasts of light and shade,and not those of struggle and hatred among men. Thelove of man for maid he seldom painted in this period.

* La Rtforma, July, 1887.49


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIHe produced the two pretty little studies A Kiss atthe Fountain and An Idyll on this theme, one ortwo sketches, and that is all.

From the point of view of originality, his work isoriginal rather in the manner of treatment than in hissubjects. His human figures and his expressions mayremind one of other artists, especially of Millet, but inhis composition, in his landscapes of storm and sunshineand twilight effects, and in his sheep and cattle, he isunique. No one has painted the peace of nature and ofthe animal world as he has painted it. His skies are asyet his weak point. They have not reached that purenessand lucidity which he afterwards attained in the Alps.But already, in the Ave Maria, and still more in AliaStanga, he succeeds in producing fine sky effects, whichare a promise of greater things to come.

His drawing was in its main lines forcible andmasterly. He avoided details, but their absence wasrequired by the damp, heavy atmosphere of NorthernItaly. Afterwards, when he lived among the Alps, hefound it necessary to resort to a greater elaboration ofdetail. In drawing the human face Segantini seldomgave much importance to expression. His faces weredrawn with simplicity, almost with roughness. He gavejust enough lines to produce a look of .sadness, ofhappiness, of weariness, of love, and no more. In hisearliest work human figures often formed the centre ofthe picture, but it was their attitudes and their relation to

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIeach other and to the surrounding objects that expressedthe motif, rather than the mere facial expression. In thesecond phase Segantini was to give even less importanceto expression than before. The chief exception to thisrule is, perhaps, the Ave Maria, in which the look onthe woman's face is full of the deepest feeling ; but evenhere it is the harmony of all the parts that gives strengthto the composition rather than the single element ofexpression. Segantini's colouring was now beginning tobe rich and and effective. In the earlier Brianza phasehis light was not yet strong enough, but that defectwas remedied in the Ave Maria, and in the secondphase colour and light became one of the artist's chiefcharacteristics. It reached its zenith in the Alpineperiod.

His method of painting, like everything else aboutthis singular artist, was peculiar. He seldom, if ever,painted studies for any particular composition. Thedrawings and sketches of his larger pictures, of which hehas left a very considerable number, were always executedafter the larger works, as a correction of their defects, andnot before, as a means of preparation. Many of the blackand white drawings and pastels of his Brianza pictureswere done in the Engadine, and so were some of thereplicas which he was fond of painting. Some of thesesecond thoughts were painted with the divisionisttechnique which he afterwards adopted, as an experimentto see how those same effects would appear when treated

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIin a different manner. The Ave Maria, for instance,was repainted three times. There are a good manyunfinished studies of Segantini's, but they were almostinvariably intended to be pictures, which he did notcarry out. The black and white drawings and thepastels are extremely beautiful ; sometimes they areeven better than the larger work from which they weretaken.

As you know, he wrote, I never make sketches ;because if I were to make the sketch I should never paintthe picture. Most of the artists who have painted aclever sketch have rarely painted a picture that was equalto it, or they have not painted the picture at all, becausein the sketch they expressed the spiritual part of theirwork. I wish that the conception should be preserved inits virginity in the brain. The artist who begins bypainting the sketch of his picture is like a young manwho, seeing a beautiful woman, remains fascinated byher, and wishes to possess her, to enjoy her embraces,to kiss her lips and her eyes. Thus the sketch ismade.

I like to make love to my conceptions, to caress themin my brain, to cherish them in my heart. Although I amlonging to see them reproduced, I refrain, and I amsatisfied with preparing a suitable dwelling-place fortbem. Meanwhile I continue to see them with mymind's eye, there in that particular entourage, in thoseattitudes, with that sentiment. In a word, I desire that

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIin the picture one should not see man's childish efforts ;I want the picture to appear blended in colour. Flowersare thus made, and this is the Divine Art. *

We shall discuss his divisionist drawings in thenext chapter. He sometimes combined black and whitedrawing with pastel, sketching in the main features of thepicture in pencil or charcoal, and adding a few touches ofcolour in pastel here and therea green bank, a note ofred on a woman's dress, a fragment of blue in the sky.Occasionally he made drawings in which the backgroundis dark grey, almost black, and the outlines of thecomposition are drawn in light. The result is not alwayssatisfactory, and should be regarded more as a tour deforce or an experiment than as a really serious attemptat a new method. Thus the Girl Drinking is not avery effective piece of work. There is more charm inthe Sleeping Shepherd, in which the little group ofsheep is cleverly indicated by a few curved lines. Stillhis drawing is always interesting, and he now beginsto produce effects of greater light by means of massesof lines intersecting each other in every direction.With regard to Segantini's success, until the AveMaria was exhibited his work was not much knownor appreciated outside a limited circle. Some of hispaintings were exhibited in Venice, in Milan, andelsewhere, and several were sold. The Ave Mariaand Alia Stanga began his real reputation. Signor

* p. Levi's Giovanni Segantini, p. 28.

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIOjetti, the Milanese art critic, thus summed up this firstperiod of his work : In his Brianza work from 1882 to 1885 he ismelancholy and solemn. He loves the sunset and thetwilight which in the wide valleys seem to confuse theearth with the sky, and give to the land that is confinedby distant mountains the appearance of a piece of theearth suspended in the sky. *

Signor Grubicy, who already intuitively grasped thecoming glory of his friend, wrote of him :

He is of the stuff of which we may say what weplease, for he takes the best of everything, and for therest he says, ' We shall return to this again in two, three,or five years, when the right moment comes ' ; for he isstrong, and is in no hurry to be declared right.

Signor Levi also admired his work, and praised itin several reviews. In England Scgantini was firstknown through the Italian Exhibition of 1888, to whichhe sent several pictures and a considerable number ofblack and whites and pastels. Here too his work gaverise to much discussion, but he secured the support ofthe late Lord Leighton, P.R.A., who understood histalent.

On the other hand, Segantini found strong opponentsin Italy, especially among the members of the MilaneseAcademy, whose teaching he had done his best todiscard, and whose diploma, when it was afterwards

* Nuovo Anlologia, Oct. 16, i8


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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIoffered to him, he declined with thanks. Still, thediscussions aroused thus early in his career were asnothing compared with those which were afterwards torage around his symbolic pictures.

The increased power and the more perfectly developedoriginality of his Engadine work, which finally estab-lished his reputation on a solid foundation, should notblind us to the merit of his earlier studies. Thesepaintings, if not such masterly and complete compo-sitions as those he afterwards painted, are idylls ofcountry life, full of sweet simplicity and fascination.His pictures of labours in the field, of flocks andherds, of quiet, soft landscape, find their counterpartin the Georgics of Virgil, or in the Pastoral Symphonyof Beethoven. They may well be called the Worksand the Days of Northern Italy. Had Segantini donenothing else, he would still deserve to be reckonedamong the masters of the craft ; although it could nothave been said that he had made an epoch in art, orgiven a new direction to modern painting.

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CHAPTER IIITHE PAINTER OF THE ALPS.AT SAVOGNINOWHEN Segantini settled in his Alpinehome at Savognino he felt himself to

be in a new world. In that highatmosphere the dreamy, watery effects

of the Brianza hills are unknown. The air is sorarefied that, save when there are mists, it is absolutelytransparent, and the outlines are hard and clear. Im-pressionism in the form in which it was practised bythe Barbizon painters or the Glasgow school becomesan impossibility. Hence a new technique is necessary.This apparently simple fact had been hitherto completelyignored, and because the technique of the banks of theSeine, of the Scotch moors, or of the Italian hills andplains was incapable of reproducing Alpine effects, theAlps were left strictly alone by artists.

Before Segantini astonished the world of art with hisAlpine work, no painter had coped successfully with the

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GIOVANNI SEGANTINIhigh mountains. The Swiss painter Calame had made aseries of Alpine pictures of which it was justly observedthat they had lost the Alps to the artist. The one reallygreat artist that Switzerland has producedBocklinnever painted the high mountains. Tourists go everyyear to the Alps in their thousands and their tens ofthousands, but never an artist among them, unless itbe to take a holiday. Other painters besides Calamehave occasionally attempted to paint Alpine scenery, butexcept for an occasional study of rocks, a bit of greenpasture in spring-tim

villari_giovannisegantini

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