The Por­traits of Lui­sa Tor­el­li Taglia­bue and Lui­sa Vio­li­ni Tacchi 

Two Mas­ter­pie­ces by Segan­ti­ni in Dialogue

23 June — 20 Octo­ber 2023, Ope­ning: 30 June, 5.30 p.m.
Cura­ted by Dr. Nic­colò D’Agati

At the end of 2022, with the help of gene­rous spon­sors, the Gott­fried Kel­ler Foun­da­ti­on and the Gio­van­ni Segan­ti­ni Foun­da­ti­on suc­cee­ded in acqui­ring the Ritrat­to del­la Signo­ra Tor­el­li (Por­trait of Mrs. Tor­el­li, 1880), a work that occu­p­ies a very spe­cial place within Segantini’s por­trai­tu­re owing to its refi­ned syn­the­tic pain­ting style and its chro­ma­tic and pho­to­me­tric auda­ci­ties. The Gio­van­ni Segan­ti­ni Foun­da­ti­on would like to cele­bra­te this important addi­ti­on to the museum’s own coll­ec­tion with a small exhibition.

Thanks to new­ly dis­co­ver­ed docu­ments, the Ita­li­an art his­to­ri­an and cura­tor Nic­co­lo d’A­ga­ti has been able to pro­ve that the por­trait of Mrs. Tor­el­li, pre­vious­ly dated 1885–1886, was actual­ly pain­ted as ear­ly as 1880. Gio­van­ni Segan­ti­ni was only 22 years old at the time. The sub­ject of the por­trait is Lui­sa Taglia­bue Tor­el­li, a famous model of important Lom­bard artists such as Tran­quil­lo Cre­mo­na, Danie­le Ran­zo­ni, Emi­lio Lon­go­ni and Anto­nio Mancini.Giovanni Segan­ti­ni was only 22 years old at the time. The sub­ject of the por­trait is Lui­sa Taglia­bue Tor­el­li, a famous model of important Lom­bard artists such as Tran­quil­lo Cre­mo­na, Danie­le Ran­zo­ni, Emi­lio Lon­go­ni and Anto­nio Mancini.

The pain­ting had been in the pos­ses­si­on of the same Ger­man-Jewish fami­ly sin­ce 1900, who took it with them into exi­le in the USA in 1938. Now, after 85 years, it is final­ly retur­ning to Euro­pe and can be made per­ma­nent­ly acces­si­ble to the public. The spe­cial exhi­bi­ti­on cura­ted by Nic­colò d’A­ga­ti brings the por­trait of Mrs. Tor­el­li into con­ver­sa­ti­on with the por­trait of Lui­sa Vio­li­ni Tac­chi pain­ted by Segan­ti­ni in the same year.

The two por­traits were pre­sen­ted tog­e­ther in 1880 at the annu­al exhi­bi­ti­on of the Acca­de­mia Bre­ra, which mark­ed the young Segantini’s debut on the Mila­ne­se art sce­ne. The works repre­sent two dif­fe­rent but com­ple­men­ta­ry ways of deal­ing with the gen­re of the por­trait: The enig­ma­tic pain­ting by Lui­sa Vio­li­ni Tac­chi — also known as Por­trait of a Sick Woman — takes inti­ma­te and psy­cho­lo­gi­cal cues by focu­sing on the subject’s gaze. Ins­tead, the por­trait of Mrs Tor­el­li, also known by the title Al sole (In the Sun), sets its­elf apart from stan­dard por­trait ico­no­gra­phy by choo­sing an out­door set­ting on the Naviglio Canal and demons­tra­tes Segantini’s cou­ra­ge in colou­ristic expe­ri­men­ta­ti­on, mani­fes­ted in the search for dar­ing light and chia­ros­cu­ro effects in the play of back­light. In addi­ti­on to the por­traits and the city sce­ne Il Naviglio a pon­te San Mar­co (The Naviglio at the San Mar­co bridge), pain­ted in the same year, the exhi­bi­ti­on shows docu­men­ta­ry mate­ri­al on the two por­traits as well as on the histo­ry of the peo­p­le depicted.