Esposizioni

Arco 2015; Arco 2017; Arco 2021-2022.

Scheda opera

The work is part of a group of three paintings on zinc plates, which are part of the still life genre that made a comeback in the 1870s, imposing itself as a field of experimentation both in relation to market demands and for more strictly pictorial reasons. Segantini, from the very beginning, as documented by the presence in the Braidense exhibition of 1880 of several still lifes with subjects of game and vegetables, tackled the genre with constancy until he moved to Pusiano in 1881. Although these subjects were not completely abandoned by the painter, it was in 1885-1886 that Segantini tackled the subject of still lifes again in a more complete manner in the cycle of canvases he painted for Treves, in which we find a definite change in the colour and luministic schemes in parallel with the evolution of his painting from 1884 onwards.

The three works probably originated as decorative elements and can be dated to the years 1879-1880, his first activity in Milan. In these works Segantini fits into the strand of naturalist painting of the 1870s that relied mainly on the restitution of volumes and forms through the use of colour and a constructive, synthetic brushstroke. These elements are fully present in the three zinc plates: in the panel with the fish, consider, for example, how the red plant elements are rendered through small touches of colour with the tip of the brush, as is also the case in the rosemary sprig in the panel with the game, or the scales drawn directly with colour. The same can be appreciated in the rendering of the fruit where the brushstrokes are visible, textural and build up the volume of the pears and apples through their progression. These linguistic elements link Segantini’s still life painting to the contemporary experiences of Longoni, Carcano and other Lombard artists.

(MARIA ELENA BERARDINELLI)