Giovanni Segantini

In the second half of the 19th century, Austrian-born, Italian artist Giovanni Segantini was one of Europe’s most coveted artists. Retrospectively, he stands as a pivotal figure in understanding the shift from the 19th to the 20th century in Western art. After a rough childhood spent mostly outside of Milan, Segantini entered art school. There he painted the daily lives of rural peasants—a deviation from the norms of mythological and religious subject matter accepted in art school. At age 28, he began living in a variety of Swiss villages nestled in the Alps. His time in the mountains defined his career; he is best known for capturing crystal-clear Alpine landscapes. Within this subject, Segantini experimented with avant-garde painterly styles like Pointillism and Symbolism. In-vogue with Europe’s broader painting experimentations, Segantini made a comfortable living selling his work to patrons and museums throughout Europe before dying suddenly at age 41.