Giovanni Giacometti

Private collection, Switzerland (by descent to the present owner)

Elisabeth Esther Köhler, Giovanni Giacometti, 1868-1933, Leben und Werk, Zurich, 1969, no. 174

Paul Müller & Viola Radlach, Giovanni Giacometti, 1868-1933, Werkkatalog der Gemälde, vol. I, Zurich, 1997, no. 1910.38, pp. 316-317, ill.

Giovanni Giacometti was among the first Swiss artists to embrace the artistic innovations of his time, first led by his mentor Giovanni Segantini and his use of Divisionism, and subsequently by Ferdinand Hodler, through whom he discovered the production of artists such as Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne. In Blühende Wiese bei Stampa, Giacometti captures his home in Stampa surrounded by flourishing nature, where he spent the last forty years of his life demonstrating his ability to capture the summer atmosphere of his daily environment with an exceptional mastery of color and light. The present work epitomizes Giacometti’s mature style, combining traditionalism with a commitment to visual sensations. It also reveals the extent to which his native land, the Val Bregaglia, remained a constant source of inspiration for him and his quest for the depiction of colorful atmospheres.