Giovanni Giacometti

Estate of the Artist

Kunstsalon Wolfsberg, Zurich

Dr Dieter Bührle, Zurich (acquired from the above)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Zurich, Kunstsalon Wolfsberg, Giovanni Giacometti, 1988, illustrated (as dating from 1912/14)

Zurich, Stiftung Sammlung Emil G. Bührle, Schweizer Maler aus der Sammlung Bührle, 1990-91, no. 14, illustrated (titled Festa di tiro (Schützenfest) and as dating from 1912/14)

Paul Müller & Viola Radlach, Giovanni Giacometti, 1868-1933, Werkkatalog der Gemälde, II-2, Zurich, 1997, no. 1915.13, p. 386-87, illustrated

The cheerful mood in Schützefest with its green, pink and blue tones, plunges us in the intimacy of Giovanni Giacometti. The lower half of the composition are taken up by seated and standing male figures. Their vertical arrangement contrasts excitingly with the diagonal barrels of the rifles slung around their necks. Most of the men's heads are turned to the left; their line of vision almost seems to emphasise the diagonal of the path, on which a group of people is approaching.

Most of the marksmen are wearing hats, and the seated person in the centre of the lower edge of the picture, wearing fine mauve tones, is even adorned with a laurel wreath. Is it probably the current Schützenkönig (the shooting king)? The houses in the middle ground also show their best side, decorated with flags in the national colours. These also wave to the left and extend the diagonals in green in the background, which have been applied in the beautiful, Segantiniesque, divisionist brushstroke.

Giovanni Giacometti studied in Munich and travelled to France and South Italy before meeting Giovanni Segantini, who soon became his mentor. Strongly inspired by Segantini’s divisionism and love for nature, his colour palette became brighter and enhanced by a greater range of chromatic nuances. Both artists, along with Cuno Amiet, pursued the goal to intensify the effects of colours and light, thanks to the juxtaposition of strokes and dots of paint. It’s only after the death of his mentor that Giovanni Giacometti started to express his own artistic style. From the turn of the century onwards, he was confronted to Hodler’s work and discovered the production of artists such as Van Gogh, Gaugin and Cézanne. Together with Cuno Amiet, he went beyond divisionism toward an expressive, vibrating and daring use of colour.