Giovanni Segantini (Italian, 1858–1899)
b. 1858 — d. 1899
By the age of eight, Giovanni Battista Emanuele Maria Segatini (who changed his last name to Segantini in 1879), was orphaned and subsequently lived in institutions and with family members in Milan. The early death of his mother in particular preoccupied him throughout his life, and the subject of motherly care would become a recurrent theme in his oeuvre. In 1875 he became an apprentice to the photographer and decorative painter Luigi Tettamanzi and began attending the Academy of the Brera in the evenings. Two years later Segantini enrolled in day classes for landscape and decorative painting. He achieved some financial security in 1880 when art dealer, critic, and painter Vittore Grubicy (1851-1920) began buying his work. That same year the young artist met Luigia Bugatti (called Bice, sister of the designer Carlo Bugatti [1856-1940]), with whom he would have four children. Grubicy helped support Segantini and encouraged him to travel to the Brianza region near Lake Como in order to paint directly from nature. Segantini depicted the life of peasants and their animals, most likely influenced by the work of Millet (q.v.). Within three years Segantini had signed an exclusive contract with Grubicy. In 1883 he was awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Amsterdam. Three years later he moved to the mountain village of Savognin at the foot of the Julier Pass in Switzerland and began painting the mountains and their inhabitants. Following the advice of Grubicy, he started experimenting with the division of colors in which he juxtaposed pure bands of pigment on the canvas, creating a luminous atmosphere. He was thus one of the leading developers of divisionism, the Italian variant of neo-impressionism. Segantini's relationship with Grubicy came to an end in 1891 after a conflict between Vittore and his brother, Alberto, on how to manage the gallery. Segantini chose the latter's side. Alberto had been controlling the financial aspects of his contract with the Grubicy gallery since 1886. From 1894 until his death in 1899, the artist lived in Majola, where he produced works of a more visionary and symbolic character that allocated a central role to nature as an overpowering force. He died on the Alpine peak Schafberg (Sheep Mountain) while working on one of the three canvasses that formed Il Trittico della Natura (The Triptych of Nature, 1896-99, Segantini Museum, St. Moritz). Since the 1888 London Universal Exhibition, the artist had earned an international reputation, particularly in Germany where he also exhibited frequently. His artistic persona has been compared with those of Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and van Gogh (q.v.). Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) called him one of the pioneers of the "spiritual in art," and the Italian Futurists regarded him as one of the exemplar figures of modernism.
