GIOVANNI SEGANTINI | The Shepherd in Love

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, the present work is a variation on the eponymous larger canvas in the Segantini Museum, St. Moritz. The artist reworked this motif of shepherds by a well in several different forms between 1882-1883.

Although almost identical in terms of composition, in this version Segantini places the three young shepherds in a more open landscape, as opposed to the narrow valley in the St. Moritz oil. Stylistically, the present work is somewhat more simplified, the sinuous outlines of the figures reminiscent of the artist’s symbolist works from the late 1880s.

Segantini became acquainted with the work of Barbizon painters, notably Jean-François Millet, through a collection of engravings sent to him by his friend and dealer Vittore Grubicy de Dragon. The influence of Millet's portrayal of peasant life (fig. 1) is particularly visible in Segantini's works from the 1880s. Grubicy sponsored Segantini's participation in both local and foreign exhibitions and, most importantly, encouraged him to study the Divisionist technique, for which he would become most famous.