1868 -1907 · Volpedo and Italian divisionism

Divided light, meditative landscapes and collective dignity culminate in Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo in the social icon of the Fourth Estate.

Giuseppe Pellizza was born in 1868 in Volpedo, a Piedmontese village with which he definitively associated his name. Coming from a family of agricultural owners engaged in local life, he first studied at the Brera Academy in Milan, then continued itinerant training in Rome, Florence and Bergamo. These experiences brought him academic drawing, study of the figure and knowledge of contemporary realism, but Pellizza chose to return to work in his village. Volpedo's landscape, inhabitants, rural works and social tensions became his laboratory. In the early 1890s, his exchanges with Italian divisionists, notably Giovanni Segantini and Angelo Morbelli, direct it towards the separation of colors into small touches or juxtaposed filaments. The technique does not constitute a simple optical effect: it must intensify the light and give a symbolic significance to the scenes observed. The Procession thus combines collective movement, sun and colorful rhythm in a familiar space. Pellizza devotes nearly ten years to the subject which will become The Fourth Estate. From the first Hunger Ambassadors to Fiumana, then to the final version painted between 1898 and 1901, he transformed a local event into a universal march. Three figures open the procession; Behind them, the crowd advances with calm, solidarity and conscience. The light does not idealize workers, it gives them a monumental dignity formerly reserved for ancient or religious history. At the same time, Pellizza painted landscapes, portraits and symbolist works where natural cycles become meditation on life. After several family bereavements, he committed suicide in his studio in 1907. Long misunderstood during his lifetime, The Fourth Estate then established itself as one of the major social images of European art. The selection "Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo" then stands out as one of the major social images of European art. The selection "Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo" notably compares The Procession and The Fourth Estate. His reading favors movement.

Pellizza transforms divided light into collective consciousness: in The Fourth Estate, the crowd does not burst, it advances with the slow power of a story that has become visible.