Gio­van­ni Segantini

〈 Bio­gra­phy
〈 Segan­ti­ni in the Engadine

«Voglio vedere le mie montagne»

The last stage of Gio­van­ni Segantini’s life and care­er in the Upper Enga­di­ne is clo­se­ly lin­ked with a num­ber of places and buil­dings, which pro­vi­de fasci­na­ting insights into the artist and his works.

Home and pavilion

In 1894, Segan­ti­ni and his fami­ly left Savo­gnin and sett­led in the Enga­di­ne, moving into the emp­ty Cha­let Kuo­ni in Malo­ja. The house still belongs to the fami­ly and con­ta­ins num­e­rous ori­gi­nal objects, inclu­ding the famous Bug­at­ti fur­ni­tu­re. Built onto the Cha­let Kuo­ni is a pavi­li­on, known as the Segan­ti­ni Ate­lier, which is open to the public. Segan­ti­ni com­mis­sio­ned the Soglio firm, Tor­ria­ni, to build this round woo­den struc­tu­re. It ser­ved as a 1:10 sca­le model for the huge pavi­li­on which was inten­ded to house his colos­sal pan­o­r­amic pain­ting of the Enga­di­ne for the 1900 Paris World Exhi­bi­ti­on. After the pro­ject fell through, Segan­ti­ni used the room as an ate­lier and libra­ry. He hard­ly ever pain­ted the­re, though, as most of his can­va­ses were crea­ted out­side in the open air. The pavi­li­on was, howe­ver, later used as an ate­lier by his son, Gottardo.

Cha­let Kuo­ni Malo­ja, 1894

Death on the Schafberg

On Sep­tem­ber 16, 1899, Segan­ti­ni went up to the Schaf­berg (Munt da la Bês-cha) in order to work on the midd­le pic­tu­re of his Alpi­ne Tri­ptych. The Segan­ti­ni Hut, at 2,731 m, whe­re the pain­ter died of an acu­te attack of peri­to­ni­tis on Sep­tem­ber 28, 1899, is about a two-hour hike from the Muot­tas Muragl sum­mit station.

Sein, 1897–1899

Maloja

On Octo­ber 1, 1899, Segan­ti­ni was buried in the small ceme­tery in Malo­ja. A plaque on the Segan­ti­ni fami­ly gra­ve car­ri­es the inscrip­ti­on, “Da pres­so e da lun­ge in ter­ra e in cie­lo uniti in vita e in mor­te ora e semp­re” (“Near and far, on earth and in hea­ven, united in life and in death, now and fore­ver”). Abo­ve the gra­ves of Gio­van­ni Segan­ti­ni and Bice Bug­at­ti stands the inscrip­ti­on, “Arte ed amo­re vin­co­no il tem­po” (“Art and love con­quer time”). The couple’s sons, Mario, Got­tar­do and Alber­to, were also buried here. Not far from the ceme­tery, high on a hill, is the Chie­sa Bian­ca, whe­re Segan­ti­ni was laid out after his death and whe­re his artist fri­end, Gio­van­ni Gia­co­metti, pain­ted a pic­tu­re of him on his deathbed.

Malo­ja is also home to the res­to­red Tor­re Bel­ve­de­re, once part of a hotel com­plex built by the eccen­tric Bel­gi­an Count Camil­le de Renes­se. Segan­ti­ni had har­bo­red the idea of using Bel­ve­de­re Cast­le as an artist’s resi­dence, but his sud­den death put paid to the­se plans.