The review presents twenty-two portraits and self-portraits (16 paintings and 6 drawings), from international public and private collections, made throughout Segantini's career, from his beginnings in Milan (1879) to his premature death in the Upper Engadine (1899). These works allow visitors to follow the evolution of Segantini's portraiture from mirror a symbol, that is the gradual transformation of the way in which the artist understood this genre: starting from his early works, in which he pursues a more or less faithful rendering of the physiognomic features, he reaches the conception of the portrait as a vehicle for expressing an idea or a symbol .
The exhibition itinerary opens with some important works from his early Milanese period, such as the fascinating portrait of Leopoldina Grubicy (1880), sister of Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, art dealer and friend of the artist. At the time of the installation, the young woman had just been widowed with two children. Segantini has been able to render with great expressive force the face of aristocratic elegance of her model, in which her eyes, which concentrate her attention, express infinite sadness.
The Milanese works are followed by a selection of works created during his stay in Brianza (1881-1886), including the touching drawing of the small Gottardo (1885), the artist's eldest son, asleep after undergoing an operation.
The effigy of the peasant woman dates back to 1886 Maria Paredi which, thanks to the violent, thick and stringy brushstroke, could be defined as almost expressionist. Immediately after moving to Savognin, in the canton of Grisons, Segantini created one of the most beautiful examples of his talent as an "explorer of the human face". This is the monumental portrait of Victor Grubicy (1887), in which he depicts his friend on a strongly constructed foreground, surrounded by some barely covered canvases, with the intention of defining his work as an art dealer. Grubicy's face, told in an intimate, relaxed way, captured during a discussion with the painter, reveals a reserved and generous personality.
Just three years later is the symbolist elegy Rose petal (1890), the last representation of his companion Bice Bugatti, a masterpiece of Segantiniana portraiture, repainted over a work entitled Galloping phthisis (1881). Here the painter decided to cancel the previous, lugubrious message of illness and death, replacing it with a symbol of life, rendered masterfully also thanks to the use of a technical experimentation, which had its roots in the Renaissance: it involves the use of powder and gold leaf, to achieve an iconic value, which coexists with soft effects of strong sensuality.
It is through the self portraits which manifests itself even more unambiguously the metamorphosis from mirror a symbol; the list of the six works exhibited, the best known of his production, ranges from 1879 to 1898, from the first self-portrait, a realist work that reflects the fascination of the features of the young twenty-year-old artist, up to the last, which presents a face prophet.
Of particular effect is that of 1882, powerfully centered on the relationship effigy/death, a macabre image in which the artist paints himself with strong theatricality, hallucinated, sword at his throat, ready to sacrifice himself for the ideal of a new cult. Even the palette adapts to this message, with dark tones, in contrast with the bright luminosity of other contemporary portraits.
A further masterpiece is the self-portrait of 1895, in which the symbolism transcends the mimetic rendering of the physiognomy towards Byzantine-like features of Christ Pantocrator, dominating the chain of "his" mountains. Thanks to the monochrome graphics, broken only by touches of gold and white chalk, the image becomes an icon, while the physicality of the color would have affected the sense of sacredness.
Segantini was born on 15 January 1858 in Arco, in the province of Trento, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He attended the Brera Academy in Milan and achieved his first success with the painting "The choir of the church of Sant'Antonio in Milan" (1879).
In 1881 Segantini left Milan and moved with his partner Bice Bugatti to Brianza. The departure from the city and the academy with its obligatory canons and mythological and religious subjects was a choice of principle. At that time Brianza was a rural region, Segantini concentrated his study on the daily life of peasants and shepherds. In 1882 the first son, Gottardo, was born; Alberto, Mario and Bianca followed.
In August 1886 the painter, after a long exploratory journey, settled with his family in Savognin, a mountain farming village in Oberhalbstein (canton of Graubünden). In the winter of 1886/87 his art dealer, Vittore Grubicy, paid him a visit and informed his protégé about the most modern artistic trends in France. However, it was above all the mountain landscape with its intense light that led Segantini to a new pictorial language. Over time, he enriched the meticulously observed alpine landscapes with a symbolic content, so as to create allegorical visions of rare brightness. The departure from genre realist painting occurred in a phase of crisis of realism throughout Europe.
After eight years in Savognin, Giovanni Segantini moved to the Engadine with his family. In 1894 he rented the Chalet Kuoni in Maloja. Here too the artist, whose paintings were among the most expensive of the time, maintained the luxurious lifestyle of the Milanese upper class, thus quickly squandering his considerable earnings. He spent the winter months in Soglio in Val Bregaglia.
At the age of 41, Segantini died unexpectedly of peritonitis on 28 September 1899 on the Schafberg mountain above Pontresina, while he was working on the central picture of his Nature Triptych.
