Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) I WANT TO SEE MY MOUNTAINS

From 29 April to 16 August 2026, the Musée Marmottan Monet is pleased to present “ Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899). I want to see my mountains “, the first large-scale solo exhibition in France devoted to one of the major figures of European Symbolism and Divisionism. During his lifetime, Giovanni Segantini was admired and closely watched by French critics, who were fascinated by this solitary genius living in isolation in the valleys of Switzerland. The first monograph dedicated to him, overseen by William Ritter, was published in Paris in 1898 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. However, over one hundred and twenty years have passed since this initial recognition without any major exhibition being devoted to him in France. Today, Segantini remains known primarily amongst specialists, art historians, and Swiss and Italian collectors, who claim authorship of this artist born in Arco, a small town in northern Italy, close to Lake Garda but who lived in the Swiss Engadin Valley. In France, the public at large has never really had the opportunity to discover the singular trajectory of a man and artist with an eventful life. Yet Giovanni Segantini dreamed of exhibiting in Paris at the 1900 World Fair. This project was never realized given his premature death in 1899. While painting outdoors in a remote cabin on Schafberg Mountain in the Swiss Alps, at an altitude of 2,700 metres, he was struck by an attack of acute peritonitis. Impossible to receive treatment in such an isolated location, he died at the age of fortyone. His last painting, La Nature , is part of a large triptych, now housed at the Musée Segantini in St. Moritz. The artist had hoped to present it to the Parisian public for the first time at the World Fair. According to Raffaele Calzini, one of Segantini’s biographers, his last words were: “I want to see my mountains.” These words serve as the title of this exhibition and constitute its starting point, retracing the life and work of Giovanni Segantini. The exhibition brings together over sixty works—paintings, pastels, and drawings—forming an exceptional collection given the fragility of the canvases and therefore the difficulty of securing the artworks on loan. The mountain is the central theme of the exhibition. It was an essential subject for Giovanni Segantini, around which his entire artistic vision revolved, both as myth and symbol. Major Italian and Swiss collections have entrusted the Musée Marmottan Monet with several key works by the artist, where his profound connection to nature can be seen. Other canvases, done in the 1880s and presented in the first section of the exhibition, also come from Italy and are on loan, notably from the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan and numerous private collectors. The works created during his extended stay in Switzerland are on loan from the collection of Christian Fischbacher (housed at the Musée Segantini in St. Moritz), the Kunsthaus Zurich, and several prestigious museums in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and the UK. Finally, some thirty drawings and pastels, equally rare and of excellent quality, complete the exhibition. Segantini always considered his work on paper to be as essential as his painting. Curated by: Gabriella Belli , art historian and Diana Segantini , independent curator and a specialist on Giovanni Segantini Exhibition organized in partnership with 24 ORE Cultura Placed under the patronage of the Swiss and Italian Embassies in France