GIOVANNI SEGANTINI
Translation of an essay from the exhibition catalog published by Cimorelli Editore.
Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico, 25 October 2025 – 22 February 2026
The Museo Civico of Bassano del Grappa presents to the public the major exhibition that, more than ten years after the last show dedicated to him, celebrates the work of one of the leading figures of Divisionism, one of the most sensitive observers of the natural world and an unparalleled interpreter of the mountain as both a physical and symbolic place: Giovanni Segantini (1858–1899).
The exhibition retraces the entire artistic journey of Segantini, bringing his works into dialogue for the first time with those of leading European artists of his era, from Millet to Van Gogh, to narrate the career of a luminary of painting who not only contributed to but often influenced the major artistic movements of his time.
His work is defined by a profound communion with Nature and by the exploration of the expressive potential of light and color—a pursuit that he would carry to its utmost consequences with the advent of Divisionism, and that would find full realization in the symbolic and pantheistic reimagining of Alpine landscapes, which he rendered absolute and eternal in pictorial terms.
From his early “Scapigliatura” phase to pastoral painting, from his bold chromatic experiments to his final, lyrical attempts to capture the spirit of the mountains and celebrate their myth, the exhibition traces the key moments of his artistic and biographical journey through a chronological and geographical itinerary articulated in four sections.