GIOVANNI SEGANTINI | Idyll

Conte Scheibler della Gherardesca, Italy (a gift from the artist); thence by descent within the family 

Purchased by the present owner in the 1990s

Painted in the early 1890s, this and the following lot exemplify Segantini’s halcyon scenes set in Brianza, in the countryside north of Milan. Young peasants captured in moments of affection, playing the flute, or guarding their flock, echo the influence of Millet and other Barbizon painters.

Both of these works have been identified by Annie-Paule Quinsac as later compositions reprising paintings from the early 1880s. The present work is a re-interpretation of the eponymous oil in the Aberdeen Art Gallery (fig. 1). The haystack to the left and the clouds on the horizon in the Aberdeen version have been replaced by a sky of tight, horizontally applied brushstrokes typical of the artist’s divisionist style, enhancing the symmetry between the sky and the field. The blossoming branch in the foreground, reminiscent of Japanese prints, is a final touch that suggests the arrival of spring and of new life. 

It was not uncommon for Segantini to return to earlier subjects and rework them on paper in redacted form with a new-found maturity. These works on paper also helped to meet demand for the increasing number of international shows at which Segantini was exhibiting in the 1890s.