Alpine Pasture: Landscape with a Cow - Giovanni Segantini

Drawing Detail

Alpine Pasture: Landscape with a Cow
Artist: Giovanni Segantini
Medium: Drawings, Pastel on grey paper, 43x61 cm
Date: c. 1896
Genre: Animal, Landscape
Source: Leningrad State Purchasing Commission, 1941

Alpine Pasture, is Segantinis last monumental high alpine scene from his time in the Savognin region of Graubünden. To capture this lake he hiked for several hours each day, nevertheless he hasn’t nearly copied nature in this painting, in fact you will not find this vast space, the broad landscape or the mountain range if you visit this spot. Segantini however combines all these elements in a majestic almost cosmic view of the world. Fractures of light and shadow emphasize the horizontal format of the composition. A mountain crest bathed in sunlight runs along the entire width and conveys the impression of infinity – and at the same time the insignificance of human beings.

The harshness and rigors of nature are reflected in the figure of the exhausted young shepherd, vibrating heath spreads over animals and vegetation. Segantini achieved the sensuous impression with his own painterly technique, which he evolved under the influence of the divisionist theories. In this late impressionist method the palette is restricted to basic colours. Or divided into complementary contrasting colours and the paint is applied as dots. The desired colour effect only occurs when the picture is viewed from the distance. The long threads of pure colour which Segantini combined, give the motive a sensuous materiality. The addition of gold and silver, for instance in the hair of the shepherd boy, heightens the impression of crystalline light in the thin air.