Giovanni Segantini

Giovanni Segantini painted the high Alps in pure, bright colour laid down in thin parallel strokes. His mountain pastures, shepherds and animals shine with clear alpine light, and many of his later works carry a symbolic, spiritual meaning.

Born in Arco, then part of Austria, he had a hard childhood in Milan and studied at the Brera Academy. With the support of the dealer Vittore Grubicy he developed his Divisionist technique. He moved to Switzerland, working in Savognin and then the Engadine. His great Alpine Triptych, Life, Nature and Death, is in the Segantini Museum in St Moritz.

Ave Maria, showing a shepherd family crossing a lake at sunset, and his painting Death, show his luminous colour and quiet reverence.