Drawn by the Engadine light

Verena Lawrence poses in front of Segantini's "Death" scene swissinfo.ch

The famous 19th century painter, Giovanni Segantini, emigrated to the Engadine Valley where he was attracted by the unique light conditions at the high altitude.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” says Verena Lawrence, a guide at the Segantini Museum in St Moritz, when asked what makes the Engadine Valley unique. “It could be the light. It changes constantly. Maybe you have to get older to appreciate it. I don’t know.”

The museum is well worth a visit for anyone vacationing in the Engadine, and a must for anyone wishing to follow in the footsteps of Segantini. It reflects a lifestyle that prevailed before tourism dominated all else in the valley, and helps to appreciate the special light conditions.

Lawrence takes me to the upper floor of the museum rotunda where small windows in the upper walls allow the sun to shine on the three colossal paintings of Segantini’s alpine Triptych; “Birth, Life and Death”.

Light in death

I’m at a loss when I enter the room because I can’t tell whether the sunlight on the snow capped mountains in the “Death” piece is streaming in from the windows or is part of the painting.

After my eyes adjust, I see that it is the result of masterful brushstrokes.

The simple but powerful works portray peasant life in an alpine setting as it was in the Engadine at the end of the 19th century. They express Segantini’s belief in the power of nature, man’s mortality, and in his own words, “the existence of all things which have their roots in Mother Earth”.

The paintings from his years in the Engadine are also an artistic interpretation of the special light conditions in the valley.

Segantini planned the paintings for show at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 but his sudden death a year earlier prevented him from adding the finishing touches.

He died in a small mountain cabin where he was working on “Life”, which depicts farmers driving their cattle home while the sun begins to set behind the mountains in the background.

Facing the cabin

“Where the rays of the sun meet [in the painting] is the spot where the museum was built,” Lawrence explains. “The museum had to be built according to Segantini’s plans. And the main axis had to face eastwards to his death cabin.”

The death cabin still stands on the Schafberg above the village of Pontresina, affording a stunning view down the valley to the last village of Maloja, where the artist lived with his family.

There is a trail that winds around Maloja leading to various Segantini sites. Even though it is poorly signposted, I thought it was worth persevering to find out how the artist saw the light, and to stand where he stood to paint his masterpieces.

Snow-covered landscape

The “death” canvas depicts the snow-covered landscape of Maloja. While on a plateau about 150 metres above the village, he painted the scene of black clad figures carrying a dead girl’s coffin to a waiting horse and sleigh.

The trail to the spot follows a small ski lift and a stone marks the place where he worked on the canvas through the winter.

He kept his oil paints in warm water to keep them from freezing and boarded the canvas up at night to protect it from the elements.

Although he preferred depicting sunset scenes, he unexpectedly chose sunrise for “death”. The work draws your eyes to the strong light highlighting the mountains and an ominous cloud in the background, underplaying the sombre scene.

Standing at the place where he must have set up his large easel and canvas for “death”, I found my eyes moving away from the beauty of the surrounding mountains and looking more closely at the details in the long shadows thrown by the tall peaks.

Back at the museum, Lawrence says Segantini was obsessed with light and its effect on the landscape. “He always wanted to have more light. When he started to paint outdoors, he wanted even more light, and the higher he went into the mountains, the clearer it was.”

by Dale Bechtel