Giovanni Segantini

(Italian, 1858-1899)

Portrait of Ercole Bertoni

Footnotes

Provenance
The sitter, thence by descent.
Private collection, Italy.

Exhibited
Zurich, Kunsthaus, and elsewehere, Giovanni Segantini: 1858-1899, November 1990 - February 1991.

Literature
A.-P. Quinsac, ed., Segantini. Trent'anni di vita artistica europea nei carteggi inediti dell'artista e dei suoi mecenati, Cattaneo Editore, Oggiono-Lecco, 1985, pp. 781-809, illustrated p.792.
A.-P. Quinsac, ed., Giovanni Segantini: 1858-1899, exhibition catalogue, Basel, 1990, p. 79, no. 9.
A.-P. Quinsac, Divisionismo italiano. Sguardi e Prospettive. 1880-1920, Compagnia della Stampa, Massetti Rodella Editori, Roccafranca, Brescia, 2021, Vol. II pp. 37-38.

Painted in Milan when Segantini was barely twenty, had just left the Brera Academy, and was beginning to attract the attention of the critics, this intimate portrait of a friend and mentor is of particular importance in the artist's development. Because of the Bertonis influence on the political makeup of the city's revolutionary milieu, this work can be also viewed as an interesting testimony of Milan's rich political history.

The four Bertoni brothers, Carlo, Ercole, Giacomo and Giulio, originally from Switzerland, owned and managed a well-known 'drogheria' - an exclusive shop for spices, meat, game, and fish preserves, which in the 80s had accumulated numerous international awards. Giulio is the author of the memoir on Segantini's tormented years, which was published in 1985.

The 'Drogheria Bertoni' would become a 'salon' for a small group of Lombard and Swiss left-wing intellectuals of Anarchist and Socialist persuasions, older than Segantini and fascinated by his precocious mind and talent. In this little cenacle, the downtrodden youth - who despite early artistic success had an extremely difficult life - would find a substitute family, moral support, and even a shelter in moments of crisis. The Bertoni circle had left a vivid trace, not only in Segantini's formative years, but also in the history of Socialism in Italy. It is recorded in the most important study on the subject.¹

I discovered this portrait after the release of the Catalogo Generale (A.-P. Quinsac, Electa, Milan, 1982). One of the descendants of the sitter, Ercole Bertoni, contacted me and gave me a copy of the already mentioned 1885 memoir, which I subsequently published in my critical edition of Segantini's writing (1985)² and in which I reproduced the present painting. I also included this work in the 1990-1991 Segantini retrospective which I curated for the Kunsthaus, Zurich. It was never exhibited during Segantini's lifetime, with the Zurich show marking its first public appearance. In both circumstances, I identified the sitter as Ercole, which had been the name given to me by the then owner, who, like his grandfather, was named Ercole.

The documentation submitted by the then owner³ - nephew of the gentleman who had called on me - attests that in 1928 the son of Ercole, Domenico Bertoni, who during a visit to St Moritz, upon learning that the painting was for sale had expressed an interest in rebuying it from the Segantini museum. In the letter of 9 August 1918, written to the museum Board [Società per il Museum Segantini], after declining the Board's offer and thanking them for having informed him of the sale, Domenico clearly states:

'For your information, the painting that you are proposing to me represents Carlo Bertoni e non Ercole. Of the accountant Ercole Bertoni (my father) I own another oil portrait signed by Giovanni Segantini but I have no intention to sell it.'

Ettore had told me that a Portrait of Carlo had been given to the Segantini Museum who had later sold it. It seems logical therefore to infer that the portrait offered here is the one of his father, the accountant Ettore, that remained in the sitter's family.

The monogram, to my knowledge unique in Segantini's oeuvre, has decorative value. It predates the intertwined one which appears after Segantini's contract with the Grubicy's Gallery when Vittore Grubicy, art dealer, critic, and painter, would determine its shape, granting himself the right to sign on behalf of the artist works the dealer deemed worthy of being presented internationally.

The present painting reflects the influence of Giuseppe Bertini (1825-1898), portrait painter of great strength, professor at the Brera Academy, who taught Segantini. In its avoidance of any embellishment, economy of means and achieved psychological truth, the work foretells Segantini's masterful portraiture, rarely known outside of Italy.

¹Renato Zangheri writes briefely about the 'the drogheria dei Bertoni brothers' in Storia del Socialismo Italiano, Einaudi, Milano, 1997 ,p. 265.
²A.-P. Quinsac, 1985, p. 792.
³Two letters from the Segantini Museum Board to Domenico Bertoni, dated 10 July 1928 and 18 July 1928, concerning the sale of the presumed Ettore Bertoni 'his ancestor'. Domenico Bertoni 's answer, dated 9 August 1928, in which he explains that the portrait offered for sale is not the one of his father, Ettore Bertoni, but that of Carlo, and insisting that Ettore's portrait is still in his possession.


We are grateful to Prof. Dott. Annie-Paule Quinsac, PhD, for compiling this catalogue entry.