Description
Segantini painted this view of a pine tree in the Swiss Alps with his distinctive combination of brilliant colors applied in small, broken strokes. Rather than a direct transcription of nature, the extreme close-up view and the flat, decorative space are designed to arouse an emotional response. Finding spiritual consolation in the lush forests and clear light around his home in the Alps, Segantini wrote: “I am now working passionately to wrest the secret of Nature’s spirit from her. Nature utters the eternal word to the artist: love, love; and the earth sings life in spring, and the soul of things reawakens.”
Provenance
(Galleria Alberto Grubicy, Milan) (Until 1907); Oscar Bernhard [1861-1939], Samaden/St. Moritz, probably by descent to his daughter, Annigna Petitpierre-Bernhard (Probably until 1939); Annigna Petitpierre-Bernhard [1899-1978], Zurich (Probably 1939-at least 1973); (Galerie Nathan, Zurich, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (Until 1982); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1982-)
Accession Number
1982.124
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Framed: 149.5 x 84.8 x 4.1 cm (58 7/8 x 33 3/8 x 1 5/8 in.); Unframed: 135.2 x 72 cm (53 1/4 x 28 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Italian
Background & Context
Background Story
Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) was an Italian painter known for the luminous, Divisionist manner that makes him one of the the most important painters of the Alpine landscape tradition. Pine Tree from c. 1897 depicts a pine tree in the luminous, Divisionist manner that distinguishes Segantini's best Alpine landscapes from the more conventional landscape painting of his contemporaries. The c. 1897 date places this in Segantini's final years, when he was producing the luminous, Divisionist Alpine landscapes that are his most accomplished works.
Cultural Impact
Pine Tree is important in the history of European landscape painting because it demonstrates the luminous, Divisionist manner that Segantini brought to Alpine subjects as the most important painter of the Alpine landscape tradition. Segantini's luminous Divisionism—applying small, distinct strokes of pure color in the manner of Pointillism to the dramatic scenery of the Alps—represents one of the most distinctive types of European landscape painting, and the c. 1897 painting shows this type at its most luminous.
Why It Matters
Pine Tree is Segantini's luminous Alpine Divisionism: a pine tree rendered in the small, distinct strokes of pure color that he applied to the dramatic scenery of the Alps. The c. 1897 painting shows the most important painter of the Alpine landscape tradition at his most luminous, in his final years.
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