upwards into the infinite blue space, shut in at the
horizon by chains of rocky mountains and by snowy
glaciers, can feel and understand the high artistic

meaning of these harmonies I have always

tried to render this feeling, in part at least, in my
pictures ; but as only a very few, for various reasons,
can understand it, I think that our art is incomplete
and represents only some details of beauty, and not
the whole harmonious beauty which lives and gives
life to nature. That is why I thought of composing
a grand work, in which I could include, as in a
synthesis, all the great feelings of Alpine harmony,
and I chose as my theme the Upper Engadine, as
that which I had studied most, and is the most varied
and the wealthiest in beauties which I understand. Here
the ranges and the eternal glaciers blend with the
tender green of the meadows and the dark green of
the fir forests, the blue sky is reflected in the lakes
and tarns which are a hundred times bluer than the
sky, the rich open pastures are everywhere intersected
with veins of crystal waters descending from the clefts
of the rocks to make all things green and fresh where
they flow ; everywhere the rhododendrons bloom, and
all is full of different harmonies, from the twittering
of the birds to the joyous warbling of the larks, from
the gurgling of the streams to the bells of the distant
herds, even to the humming of the bees."*

'â– 'â– '- Unpublished letter communicated by Signor Pico.
194




LUNiCTTH I'ROM lliE TRIPTYCH — ^ALPJiNROSi:.



[To /ace p. 194.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



But a second estimate was made, and it was found
that, owing to the irregularity of the soil and the
difficulty of making an erection of this sort in the Alps,
the expense would be 3,000,000 francs (;^i 20,000); and
so the project fell through. This was not perhaps
altogether a loss,- as it is doubtful if even Segantini
with his great powers could have made of a panorama
a really fine work of art. He consequently decided to
limit himself to painting two triptychs, one of which
he had almost finished when he died ; the other was
barely sketched out.

To carry out this project he went to work for a time
on the Schafberg, where he could see the whole of the
Upper Engadine, the wide glaciers and giant peaks
of the Rosegg, the Morteratsch, and the Bernina.
" Now," he wrote to a friend, " my field of action has
been brought up here above the pretty village of St.
Moritz, which is the central point of the Upper
Engadine ; here in a narrow space the greatest beauties
of the high mountains are collected, and of these I wish
to compose two large triptychs. I am already working
at them might and main. They will comprise every sort
of beauty, from the beautiful forms to beautiful sentiment,
from the grand lines to the beautiful lines, from human
sentiment to the Divine sense of nature, from the fair
naked human forms to the fair forms of the animals^
from the humble sentiments to the ennobling sentiment
of the symbols, from the rising of the moon to the

195



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



sinking of the sun, from the lovely flowers to the lovely
snow." He worked desperately hard, utterly absorbed
and fascinated by the love of his art and of nature.
" For the last few months I have been working fifteen
hours a day, in sunshine and in rain, in storm and
snow."

The Triptych is a large composition consisting of
three principal panels, with three lunettes above them
and six medallions in the angles. Above the two side
panels is a decorative frieze with a quaint design of
chamois on peaks. Each section is surrounded by a
highly elaborate frame. Of the three panels the left-
hand one, called La Vita, was practically finished,
and the central one. La Natiira, was also nearly
completed. A considerable amount of work remained
yet to be done in the right hand panel. La Morte.
The lunettes are all in a more or less unfinished
state, and so are the medallions. But the artist,
making for once an exception to his usual practice,
left complete designs of nearly all the parts of this
work, from which it is possible to understand what
he intended to do. The left-hand panel, which is
the most nearly finished of the three, is called " Life "
[La Vita). The central motif is the beginning of
things, represented by his favourite theme of mother-
hood. The mother is sitting under a pine tree,
hugging her child to her breast. The tree faintly
recalls the strangely contorted trees of "The Unnatural

196



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



Mothers," but it is no longer so fantastic ; the excite-
ment and passion of some of the wilder symbolic
pictures have calmed down, and Segantini's soul is
once more at peace. Groups of cattle are scattered
about the meadows, grazing or lowing, and there are
a few human figures in the middle distance. It is
spring-time, and everything is covered with bright
flowers ; there is a little pool in the foreground. The
magnificent range of mountains in the distance is
that of the Val Bregaglia ; one particularly fine
snowy group is seen through an opening in the
nearer hills. The snow and ice are painted with
the greatest care, and produce an effect of the most
powerful realism, even though here and there some
details are unfinished. All things betoken hope and
happiness. The mother is happy with her child, the
day promises to be a perfect one, the spring promises
a fine summer. Nature and men and animals are
all blended in one harmony of joyous song. Still,
even here, there is a certain note of sadness — not the
sadness caused by sorrow, but the sadness of peaceful
happiness, like the tears which are caused by a happy
meeting after a long separation. There is always
the feeling that, however happy one may be in the
present, and however bright may be the promise of
the future, still there may be dangers and sorrows
that we know not of to come. This idea is suggested
in the unfinished lunette above — a vague vision of

197



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



figures floating about on the clouds, one of which is
pursued by the Angel of Death.

The middle panel, La Natura, is in itself a
general view of all the Upper Engadine. It is on
the lines of this picture that the great panorama
would have been painted. It represents the sunset in
the high Alps. A group of cattle are being driven
home by a man and a girl. The latter is dragging
an unwilling calf along. The bent heads of the two
figures suggest fatigue after the day's toil and a
longing for rest. The cows, too, are tired, and wish
to get home. There is the usual brilliantly painted
foreground and the usual barrier of rocks in the
background. The mountains are mostly in deep
shadow, a few patches of glistening snow showing
out brightly against the dark masses. The valley in
the centre is the Engadine, with its chain of blue-
green lakes, and the fir forests coming down to their
shores, and the little white villages on the hill-side.
The view is that seen from the Schafberg. In colour
the picture is a harmony of blues and greens, lit up
by the golden rays of the sinking sun. The main
idea is toil, and rest after toil. It is perhaps the
most comprehensive of all Segantini's works. Just as
the landscape contains the whole of his field of action,
at least so far as regards the latter part of his life,
this composition includes the whole of his thought.
The note of sadness is more pronounced in this panel

198



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



than in La Vita, for it shows us that man must
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, while in
nature the most perfect day must come to an end,
and night even now approaches. In the lunette
above w^e see that darkness has arrived ; it represents
St. Moritz at night in Avinter. The lunette itself is
unfinished, but the drawing is complete. It is a
poetic and fantastic moonlight effect ; heavy clouds
are low down on the mountains, and the pale rays
of the moon are reflected in the still waters of the
lake. The foreground is all snow, and the trees are
bare. A covered sleigh is the only sign of waking
life. It is interesting to see how ethereal and poetical
even such hideous buildings as the monster hotels of
the Engadine can become when sketched by Segantini.

The third panel is " Death." It is once more
winter, and a snowy mantle covers everything. This
picture was the least finished of the three, but there
is much fine work in it. The planes of the snow
are thrown back so as to produce a sense of vast
space. We feel that we can walk on that snow, and
that we shall have to go very far before we reach the
foot of the mountains at the end of the expanse. This
effect is enhanced by a wooden barrier which marks
the road. A round heavy cloud is in the sky, and
although it is not actually snowing, we feel that
another snowstorm is coming on. To the left, from
a little hut, a dead body is being brought out to a

199



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



sledge, which is waiting to bear it to its last home. A
little group of figures are standing by, their heads bent
down, and their faces buried in their hands, mourning
for the loss of their dear one. In the lunette we see the
soul being carried up to Heaven by angels. We have
'' Sorrow comforted by Faith " once more. The sadness
here is a deep poignant grief for a definite sorrow —
the death of the father and husband — and not merely
the vague sense of the sadness of life which is in La
Natura, and in many other works. The general
wintry feeling in the air and the sense of deathly
cold are rendered to perfection. Never has the artist
succeeded in a similar attempt as he has done here.
Unfortunately, however, this is the least finished of
the three panels, and there is little of Segantini's
marvellously detailed workmanship, for he died while
he was engaged on it. We can merely grasp his
idea, we cannot quite understand every word of his
pictorial language. Of the six medallions only two
are even partially finished. One of these is called
"Alpenrose," and the other ''Edelweiss." The figures
in both cases are barely outlined, but we can reconstruct
them from from two black and white drawings. The
landscapes are highly finished. The "Alpenrose" is
represented as a naked female figure, standing by a
spring in the midst of a luxuriant growth of rhodo-
dendrons. Behind is a bit of mountain. The colours
are most brilliant, the effect most decorative. The

200



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



" Edelweiss " is also a female figure in a rocky landscape.
Behind her head rises a peak lit up by vivid light
and of intense colouring, red and gold being the pre-
dominant hues. To the right there is a narrow cleft
in the rocks, through which we can see far, far below
the same colours and high lights as in the peaks
above. It is an extremely bold idea, almost startling
in its originality, but fascinating and full of interest.
The three panels of the Triptych, unfinished as they
are, are among the most beautiful and the most
effective of Segantini's works. They contain all that is
best in his symbolism, without any of those too fantastic
flights of imagination which alarmed and bewildered
even his most devoted admirers. It also contains
some of his most perfect realism. As Alpine landscapes,
nothing has ever approached them, for in them we
see the whole life of the high mountains. To them
might be applied, mutatis mutandis, that line in
"Cyrano de Bergerac" which alludes to the Gascon
popular airs : —

Ecoutez les Gascons, c'est toute la Gascoigne !

They show us the Alps from end to end far more
truly than any panorama, however extensive and
elaborate, could have done.

From the decorative point of view, the Triptych
is somewhat imperfect. The details are beautiful, but
taken altogether there is one serious defect. The three

20 1



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



panels are of the same design and exactly like one
another in form. They only differ in size, the middle
one being larger than the other two. This is a pity,
as it produces an impression of monotony. Had the
pictures been all of the same size, and had there been
no attempt at a general decorative effect with the lunettes,
medallions, and elaborate frames, there would have been
no fault to find. The three compositions would be
separate pictures only united by a symbolic connection,
by the fact that the same idea is seen in each work
in a different stage of development. But Segantini
undoubtedly wished them to be connected by the
decorative element as well, and this he failed to achieve,
or at least his Triptych as a piece of decorative art is
wrong. Had he studied the old masters, especially
the painters of the Renaissance, he would not have
fallen into this mistake.

While he was engaged on this great work two
thoughts were in his mind. He wished to return to his
native village of Arco, and revisit the scenes of his child-
hood. " I am now working hard," he wrote, " at the
Triptych for Paris, and when I shall have finished it I
have decided to reward myself with a prize, which shall
consist in revisiting my native village." His other
desire was to see France. We have seen how, when
he was a little boy, he had been fired with a longing
to go to France on foot, and had actually run away
from home to do so, and although he did not then get

202




i.uM'.TTic I'KOM THi', TRiPTYCir i;i)i;i.\vi:iss.



[•/o fee: p. ao2



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



further than the environs of Milan, the desire never left
him again. In the early autumn of 1899, ^ luncheon
party was given in honour of the painter of the Alps,
at Pontresina, by a number of art critics from various
countries. There he made a speech to the assembled
guests, of which M. de la Sizeranne has preserved a
record : —

" I do not regret life. Life is good. My childhood
was sad, and my youth also was full of sorrow, but
now I am happy. With my wife and children in my
little chalet, I do not wish for anything. I do not
know what illness is. I have never suffered — save
from hunger. I have never any sorrow — save when
at evening I see the sun leaving us. In the fine days
of spring, when the alpenrosen creep out of the
fissures of the moss-grown rocks, and the tender green
grass shoots forth in the meadows, and the delicate
blue of the sky is reflected in the clear eyes of the
earth, then I am filled with an immense joy, and I
feel my heart beat louder. . . . But there is still one
thing for which I long. It is to see France. I am
painting a picture for the Exhibition of 1900. I shall
accompany it to Paris myself; so I am learning French,
and all my family is learning it with me. Then I shall
make a tour round Europe, and see the museums which I
have never seen. I shall see the great masters of whom
I have heard so much, and the great cities whence the
books and the newspapers come. I shall see the faces

203



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



of unknown friends who have written to me, -and the
houses which shelter my pictures. But above all, I shall
visit France. That is my dream ! "

That was his dream, a dream which appeared so easy
for him to realise, had not death prevented him. This is
how it all came about.

He had been working for many months at the
Triptych. Part of it was ready. But he wished to
give the last finishing touches on the Schafberg. He
had begun the pictures up on that mountain ; he had
then taken them down to his chalet and worked at
them there for some time. Now he wished to return
to the mountain for an effect of light and clouds. A
snow-storm had come on — it was the middle of
September — and he was advised not to go. But he
would not be deterred from his purpose by the weather.
So on the i8th of the month he set forth with a body
of labourers bearing his magnwn opus, and climbed to
the summit of the Schafberg. There was no house for
him to sleep in, only a little deserted shepherd's hut,
where he rigged up a camp bedstead and a portable
stove ; that was to be his home while he worked at the
Triptych. Before him he could see the whole panorama
of the Engadine, with its lakes and streams and villages ;
the massive peaks of rock, the great blue glaciers
creeping down to the valley, the eternal snows. He
might well feel himself the monarch of all he surveyed,
for he, and he alone, could paint that view, and send it

204




PORTRAIT OF SICGANTIXI, PAINTED AFTER HIS DICATH
liY SIG. GIACOMETTI.



[7^0 face p. 205.



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



forth far away so that men could see it who had never
seen the Alps. There, at work all day in the midst of
the scenes he loved so well, he was happy.

The first night he passed in the hut he saw a falling
star, and he said to a friend, "That augurs misfortune."
A day or two later he was suddenly taken ill. As there
was no spring near he had drunk melted snow, and
this brought on a chill. A fever came on, and feeling
himself to be seriously unwell, he sent a shepherd
down into the valley to summon assistance. His friend
Dr. Bernhard, of Samaden, came up the mountain to
his aid, and was followed soon after by the artist's
wife and children, and by two German doctors who
were still in the Engadine. All that it was possible
to do was done, but it was of no avail. Peritonitis
set in, and an operation attempted as a last resort
proved useless. On September 28, 1899, he died.
The body was carried down the mountain side, and
then along the valley to the Maloja cemetery, where
it was buried. The whole of the Engadine mourned
for the death of its great artist, and his fellow artists
and the lovers of art throughout Europe were sad.

Segantini left a widow and four children behind
him. Of the sons, the eldest, whose name is Gottardo,
is devoting himself to decorative art. The second,
Alberto, is preparing for a business career. The
youngest, Mario, studies painting and sculpture, and
he seems to have inherited much of his father's talent.

205



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



The daughter's name is Bianca. All four are bright
and intelligent. Their home is still the Maloja.

Thus died the painter of the Alps up among his
own well-beloved peaks, the visions of snow and ice,
the mountaineers and shepherds, the cattle and the
sheep, the forests and the streams. What mark has
his art made? It is as yet too soon to say. He has left
a few pupils behind him, such as Signor Grubicy (who,
however, did not follow him in his last developments),
and Signor Giacometti, who lives at Stampa in the
Val Bregaglia, and is devoting himself, like his master,
to the study of Alpine nature. Several others have
been more or less influenced by him, and the
teaching which he initiated will doubtless bear fruit.
To have discovered a new world for art in the very
midst of civilisation, although raised above it, is surely
a great achievement.

Then in the field of technique he made many
important discoveries, and awoke a new feeling in
symbolism. Harmony, powerful technique, and poetic
imagination, these are his three great qualities. On the
debit side there is, of course, something to record. His
chief defect was lack of education of mind. He had in
him the foundation for a great thinker, but his mental
training was imperfect. Perhaps this want might have
been supplied by the study of the old masters to which
he intended to devote himself in his journey through
Europe. But, on the other hand, he would have run

206



GIOVANNI SEGANTINI



the risk of being spoilt, especially by some of the modern
schools which he would have seen also. For a man of
his age — he was forty-one when he died — the sudden
sight of a host of different art schools might have
proved a serious danger, and perhaps would have
unbalanced his mind without improving him. He was
better as he was, for in his own field he was supreme
and unique.

Our task is now ended. We have told the story of
Segantini's life, in the hope that others may be induced
to study his works.



THE END



The illustrations for this volume were executed
by the Art Reproduction Company, and
printed by Bradbury, Agncw & Co., Ltd.



I TNWIN BRGTHERSl

U Printers :n Anliiiuc-= I
I Cflc-^rtofiainiprcro-l

I tj PilSrim Strccl LONDOr^
I. .a WOKING ...KM -q^



14 DAY USE

RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

LOAN DEPT.

RENEWALS ONIY— TEl. NO. 642^405

•nils book is due on the last date stamped below, or

on the date to which renewed.

Renewed books are subject to immediate recall



Jm 1 7 1QfiQ 7 Q



^S£^_L^JPl_210:Sm



NOV 2 11973



laaiiD mi!2?72n5wrT*



I^TBTNtr?



-7^^



LD21A-60to-6,'69
(J9096slO)476-A-32



General Library

University of CaUfornia

Berkeley



!>t{lt-'jW|T?


,