Portrait of William Ritter (1903)

Iscription: «Finito a Monruz il 12 genaio [sic] 1903»; «Mario Segantini»; «A Madam Ritter et sa famille MSegantini»

Provenance: Switzerland, private collection

 

«Segantini’s youngest son, Mario, wanted to become a sculptor. A year after Segantini’s death, his widow sent the sixteen-year-old to us in Vienna. My husband took him in as a pupil and also made him attend the School of Arts and Crafts. Mario, whose talent was unmistakable, worked furiously, often until late at night, on the objectives that he had set himself, but which his abilities had not yet allowed him to achieve. His enthusiasm weakened slightly when it came to systematic learning at school: he succumbed to the infantile illusion of not having to study. His amiable, calm character made him a dear companion at home, even if it was something of a responsibility to take care of such a naïve, overconfident youngster, who looked like a cherub with his blond beard and white sculptor’s overalls and who ladies of all ages were after due to his tenderness. They could not and did not want to believe that the pure fire in his eyes burned solely for artistic ideals. Other dangers for him were also lurking because of the Viennese police. Accustomed to living completely freely outdoors, Mario preferred to use the sidewalk on his two-wheeler, causing agitation among pedestrians. Or, as he pedalled down the street with a cowbell in his hand and white gaiters peeking out from his clogs, crowds of people would gather. However, after a while, his cheerful mood turned sombre and his heroic profile with his eagle-shaped nose resembled that of his father. So, he returned to his mountains, sometimes working with a pencil or an engraving awl, but it was a restless, blunt job. The flight of a young eagle that never managed to take off. Like the historic Aiglon, he probably suffered from the crushing weight of having a famous name. He married very early, but his marital happiness did not last long. His soul, which was illuminated by beauty and was passionate about adventure, had become tired before venturing into great art. He died young».[1]

This portrait, drawn from the words of Alice Gurschner – nee Alice Pollak and wife of the Austrian sculptor Gustav Gurschner, Mario Segantini’s teacher during his first years in Vienna[2] – is relatively faithful to Mario Segantini’s vital, artistic arc. In the image of the Napoleonic Aiglon, Alice Gurschner condensed the path of a young artist who – like his brother Gottardo, although with different results – had to deal with the complex legacy of his father figure in search of his own identity.

Mario, third son of Giovanni Segantini and Bice Bugatti, after their firstborn Gottardo and Alberto, was born in Milan in 1885.[3] His approach to artistic practice, must undoubtedly have taken place very early under the guidance of his father, with the first known result being the participation, together with his father and brothers, of a young Mario in the small publishing business «Il Maloja», a self-produced magazine by the Segantini family between February and August 1899.[4] As Alice Gurschner recalled, immediately after his father’s death, Mario moved towards more structured studies in the field of sculpture, attending the sculptor Gurschner’s atelier in Vienna: indeed, a letter sent from Giovanni Giacometti to the young artist dated 12 May 1900 mentions his work as a painter-sculptor.[5] Therefore, by these dates Mario had already started a course of studies, which for a brief period had also included enrolment at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, attended for a few months and intermittently towards the end of 1899 and the first months of 1900: in early March, he was already in Vienna, where he attended the school of applied art.[6] His stay in the Habsburg capital, just as Alice Gurschner recalled, was marked both by the start of his work mainly on sculpture and by periods of discouragement. On 26 November 1900, Mario wrote to his mother Bice: «I feel bad, my mind is full of sadness and anguish, I can’t wait to return to where all my love lives and all my thoughts are directed. It’s so difficult to deal with things alone and have to put on a cheerful face so as not to reveal that you want to cry».[7] A few days later, however, he communicated with renewed spirit: «I have done a “dead head”, I have not yet faced nature. I will soon begin a bas-relief of a young American pianist. The weather is always bad, I hope I have already learnt a lot and will no longer need anyone soon».[8] In December 1901, he wrote to Gottardo: «I have started my self-bust, I am better. I always gets lots visits from young art students who are interested in the new technique. Faced with a Divisionist attempt by a student, the professor forbade him to speak to me. There is great expectation for dad’s exhibition, which will change the artistic trend in Vienna. I repeat my dad’s teaching, to do what you hear and see».[9] These words, which suggest a progressive awareness of his own artistic individuality, were accompanied by the continuous attention and support that Mario received from the Swiss critic and writer William Ritter (1867-1955) in the context of an intellectual and human bond marked by an aestheticisation of life that was typical of the culture expressed by Ritter.

The first biographer of the Segantini family, who from the early nineties had a close relationship and collaborated directly with Giovanni Segantini, which culminated in the first biography of the painter published in Vienna in 1897[10], turned his attention to work of his two sons Gottardo and Mario immediately after their father’s death, introducing their artistic work in an article that appeared in «Emporium» in 1901 and which was dedicated to the VIII international exhibition in Munich. Although neither of the young sons of Segantini, some works of whom were present at the exhibition, had taken part in the exhibition[11], Ritter took advantage of the results of Segantinism to affirm the priority of Mario and Gottardo in the succession to their father: «Unfortunately, he [G. Segantini] has followers who not only mimic and exaggerate his manner, but also his visions, even the shapes of his saplings […] and as always happens, they think that the more they exaggerate, closer they get to him: they paint impasto to excess and build skies that look like walls. […] He, moreover, has only two legitimate descendants, in the true sense of the word, his two sons, Mario and Gottardo, of whom we know not only from the engravings of their father’s works, but from the original etchings, which already show a little of the humble and tender naivety of his soul and the proud independence of his spirit. These first truly Segantini etchings are already something more than a mere promise, but are mainly a promise. Collectors will one day contend each other for these first samples of youthful grace that is so touching, perhaps even more so than the realisation of the promises of which they are full».[12] Ritter’s complete support for the work of the two brothers is also documented by the letters sent during 1901, as well as by the orders for works for himself and his family.

On 30 March 1901, Ritter wrote: «Great interest in your four etchings. They have individuality with a family feel: those of Gottardo are more closed, those of Mario more energetic and free. Gottardo focussed on more difficult subjects. Tips: work on the originals, on your own drawings or draw inspiration directly from nature. Make the engravings yourselves. Contact the great Dutch engraver Storm Gravesande for advice and send him your works».[13] Gravesande himself, on 8 April, responded to Ritter, who enthusiastically forwarded the letter to Mario and Gottardo: «thank you for introducing me to the two boys, who sent me 4 beautiful etchings, they absolutely must produce original etchings and they will undoubtedly succeed, judging by the reproductions, as long as they don’t go to school!».[14] The encouragement of the Swiss art critic translated both into practical advice, relating to the organisation of exhibitions and, therefore, to the start of a true professional path, and more closely linked to artistic research: «I prefer your portraits to landscapes and recommend doing the drawings before the etchings. Landscapes are poorly mediated. The portraits are too small. Start with nature, you need to have something to say and know how to say it. Not suddenly, wait until you become expert»[15]; «Now, first of all, there is the need to exhibit, at ordinary exhibitions. Try Artaria in Vienna, I can produce some good articles, but make yourself known at the exhibitions. Work, merchantswill come to you, you must not go to the merchants. I’m happy with your progress. Study lithography».[16]

The first results, in exhibition terms, for Mario Segantini arrived shortly afterwards during the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung from May to September 1902, where the young artist presented three works: Frühlingsmorgen, an original engraving, and two derivations from paternal subjects, Pastorale and Alla Stanga.[17] It was Pastorale, an etching variation of a successful Segantini motif developed in the Brianza years, which attracted the attention of the reviewer of the Berlin magazine «Die Musik» who, in his article dedicated to the relationship between art and music, mentioned the work «dedicated to his father Giovanni, [which] shows a shepherd sitting on the ground, playing the shepherd’s flute while the shepherdess listens, surrounded by her flock».[18] Also in 1902, from December to January 1903, with the direct investment by Alberto Grubicy, who had been the owner of the sole gallery owner for Giovanni Segantini’s work, Mario debuted in Milan at a collective exhibition organised by the gallery owner at the premises of the local Permanente. On that occasion, Mario solely exhibited etchings, Alla Stanga, Temporale in Montagna, Benedizione delle pecore, Ritorno all’ovile and Idillio, all derived from his father’s prototypes, and Paesaggio, Cristo and Prometeo, which were original and the basis for pictorial variations of the same subjects developed throughout 1902 and 1903.[19] The last months of 1902 represented, for both brothers, a period that spurred their search – following Ritter’s advice – for new opportunities to exhibit: the Kunstlerhaus in Zurich, to which the two brothers were invited[20], Budapest, where Mario exhibited one of his etchings[21], and Mario’s attempts to participate in the competitions announced by the 1903 Venice International for the creation of the commemorative medal of the exhibition.

Attempts which, particularly from the end of the summer of 1902, Mario continued with vigour in Berlin, trying to open a commercial channel with the Salon Keller & Reiner.[22] The young Segantini had moved to the Prussian city, thanks to the hospitality of the Kempner and Salomon family, at the end of September after a brief period in Munich, which was interrupted due to his intolerance towards the local artistic scene. Here, he had spent a few months, after leaving Vienna, as a guest of William Ritter who, following the young man’s departure, wrote in a letter addressed to him: «everything here reminds me of you and I speak about you to everything».[23] It is precisely a letter sent by Mario from Berlin to Gottardo that allows a clearer interpretation of the events that led to the creation of the Ritratto di William Ritter being looked at here.

«I know how sad autumn is in Maloja. Yesterday, I was at Kelsing’s, who is very nice, I saw magnificent colour prints on fabric from a single plate. If you still aim to do etchings, I will send you some new tools which I find to be very good. I went to Keller and Reiner and we arranged a collective exhibition: I will work here in Berlin, you too work “like a machine” on your paintings and perhaps we will make it by Christmas. I found an atelier, if you finish the painting come and bring it to me in Berlin, I then have to go to Munich to do Ritter’s portrait (500L), then to Neuchâtel for the Ritter bas-reliefs (1000L each). I went to Koenigs, but, perhaps mistaking me for Alberto, he avoided meeting me, then instead invited me to lunch. In Leipzig, I was treated very well and was very happy».[24]

Mario’s presence in Monruz-Neuchatel at the Ritter residence was vouched for in January 1903: on 11 January, the painter wrote to his mother that he would move to Besançon together with William Ritter for the baptism of his godson and then would go to Maloja at the end of the month.[25] The portrait, probably set in Munich, at the end of 1902 during the announced passage in the city for the ccreation of the work, was completed, as the inscription on the painting states, in Monruz, where the Ritter family lived. The painting of the work is documented by some pictures from the Ritter archive conserved at the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Neuchâtel, portraying the painter and the critic in front of the as yet incomplete canvas. The photographs taken on the terrace of the Ritter home in Monruz are an extraordinary testimony to the intellectual and emotional bond that united Mario and the Swiss art critic.

Mario is portrayed while posing in front of the work and holding a palette or while holding a vase with a bouquet of flowers particularly similar to those seen in the painting. As the images allow us to appreciate, at the time of the photograph, the work was more or less complete, only the golden frame was missing with the crowning started, but not completed.

The portrait was painted during the period of Ritter’s greatest infatuation with the work and with the figure of Mario. A true love which, far beyond the Pygmalion-like dynamics in the construction of an artistic personality, had its roots in a homosophical dimension, undoubtedly stimulated by the chiaroscuro figure of Mario, and fully reflecting Ritter’s aestheticising positions and taste.[26] The dedicatory preface to Mario Segantini, written by Ritter in Monruz on 2 December 1902, to the novel Leurs lys et leurs roses published in 1903 helps establish as much.[27] In dedicating the work to the young painter, Ritter wrote: «Mais dès l’heure insigne de notre initiale rencontre dans les neiges de Maloja n’a- t- il pas été statué que ton nom prêterait le diadème au premier de mes prochains romans destiné à paraître, fût- il de chair, de nerfs et de sang – tout ce que tu méprises – de péché, de honte et de boue – tout ce que tu ignores?». A sort of reflected mirror was forged in which Ritter became the old man, morally and humanly tried, cantor of a maudit aesthetic – flesh, nerves, blood, sin and shame and mud – contrasted with the heroic, youthful personality of Mario, who despises that which is matter and ignores that which is moral degradation. The meeting with Mario, in the snows of Maloja, took on an almost mythical character: even before meeting him in person, it occurred through the gift of a drawing taken from Un fiore delle Alpi dated 1889 by Giovanni Segantini, in which the boy looked like Mario.[28] The gift of the novel, «de ces lys héraldiques et dérisoires et de ces roses piétinées, macérées et un rien nauséeuses», after the «roses et les lys de ton éblouissante et fière jeunesse», was only a small sign to Ritter of what Mario represented for him with his presence and his work: «Tu penses certes que pas une minute je ne songe par l’offrande de ce vieux péché à me tenir quitte de tout ce que tu as mis à mon intention de vertu, de franchise et de rudesse hautaines , d’arrogance alpestre, de puissance inculte et presque barbare, de clair-obscur, apeurant». In the face of that, Ritter proclaimed himself unlucky, condemned to have nothing else to offer those he loved, like Mario «de la race des Mino, Desiderio et Benedetto», other than «les vieux masques de mon âme» with the sole intent «de te procurer en attendant quelques heures de pensée une minute de plaisir, l’affection et le dévouement absolus de ton indéfectible admirateur et ami».

The human dynamic inscribed in these words finds full expression in the Ritratto by Mario completed on 12 January 1903. Ritter is portrayed as Saint Sebastian, at the back of the landscape of Monruz, his body pierced by arrows while blood and gold drip from his wounds. The iconography, perfectly fitting into the homoerotic cult of Saint Sebastian, also seems linked to a symbolic evocation – the tortured body in chains, the ecstatic gaze, the flowers clutched by a hand – of the writer’s internal conflict, the writer who, dedicating Leur Lys et leurs Roses to Mario, affirmed that the novel was the symbol of his «résurrection mondaine après tant d’années de silence et d’enfouissement, de rêve et de voyage, de tête- à-tête avec d’autres problèmes que ceux de vaine esthétique extérieure».

A lithographic portrait of Mario Segantini by William Ritter himself helps further unravel the reason for the work. Dated 30 January 1903, the portrait is dedicated, by both Ritter and Mario, to the writer’s sister Hélène «en remerciement de ses belles photographies», probably those taken of Ritter and Mario in Monruz.

The small work, which follows the structure of the larger portrait starting with the pose, portrays Mario, shirtless, inside Monruz’s home. On the tablet on the right, Ritter wrote: «Mario Segantini à l’age de 17 ans et 11 mois. Par son ami William Ritter à Monruz le 26 Janvier 1903. Sancte Raphael cum nobis. Sancte Sebasiane Ora pro nobis».

In the aestheticization, it appears clear the way Ritter assumes the characteristics of the holy martyr, of the suffering of martyrdom and of the salvation represented by the cult of beauty, while Mario rises to the role of an angelic figure in his identification with the Archangel Raphael, the saving and healing figure.

Within this sequence, there is a further work by Mario Segantini, his Autoritratto created, undoubtedly, by March 1903, also in Monruz.

During the months of his stay with the Ritters, which extended to February, Mario fell in love with William’s sister, Joséphine. Having returned to Munich, on 29 March 1903, he wrote to his mother Bice: «What you tell me is very correct, but don’t be afraid because for the first two years we would live in Monruz and Maloja. In Monruz, I will begin the Prometheus painting, then the bas-relief and the piano portrait with candlelight of my fiancée. The amount of enemies we have in Munich is incredible, after all, if we were nobody, nobody would care about us. Vonnon is not a girl like all the others and she will be able to endure all the hardships you speak of. We love each other very much. I will manage her father’s collection of paintings, which can lead to good business deals. The Brukmann deal should be worth 4,000 marks. I made a medallion for Nounou».[29] The engagement was made official in June of the same year, while the wedding took place in July 1904.[30] The union of the two, which was not a very happy one and was punctuated by the instability of Mario’s character and the complex events that characterised his life after 1904, came to an end during a period of progressive cooling of relations with William Ritter caused by misunderstandings related to business.[31]

The Autoritratto with the inscription «Mario Segantini en sa XVIIme Annee pour son ami William Ritter. Monruz 1903» allows, thanks to the date of the painter’s birth, to establish its completion by March of that year, in immediate proximity to the Ritratto di Ritter. The same setting, the recurrence of the iconographic themes, clarify that the two works were created as a sort of diptych, also given the perfect correspondence of their dimensions, composed of two modern icons played on the intellectualised identification of the two portraits: Ritter as San Sebastiano and Mario Segantini as Archangel Raphael.

Among the works created by Mario in Monruz during that year, a portrait of Ritter’s mother can undoubtedly be identified in the plaster bas-relief with a praying woman signed and dated 1903, one of the rare known examples of Mario Segantini’s sculptural work. The woman, moreover, was the person to whom the Ritratto di William Ritter was dedicated – « A Madam Ritter et sa famille MSegantini» reads the dedication on Ritter’s forearm in the painting – and shortly thereafter she would become the painter’s mother-in-law.

The Ritratto di William Ritter constitutes, to date, one of the rare examples of the pictorial works of Mario Segantini, who is mainly known for his etchings. It is precisely Ritter’s words, in the first article fully dedicated to Mario’s work and which appeared in «La Semaine Littéraire» in April 1903, that highlight the essential characteristics of his painting.[32] The most decisive aspect of the young Segantini’s style was identified by Ritter as its chromatic power, the accentuation of saturations and the almost enamel-like effects of the pictorial film. The application of the colour, moreover, shows a clear tendency towards material highlighting and diversification of the applications, right up to the scraping of the colour itself using the tip of the brush. While these elements, undoubtedly, refer the meditation and recycling of certain aspects of Giovanni Segantini’s work, the model of his father’s painting is reworked in an autonomous manner, not solely with regard to the highlighting of the sign, where the stroke is structured beyind the logic strictly linked to the Divisionist technique and more oriented towards a secessionist decorativism, but also with regard to the more typical characteristic of Segantini’s symbolism in the fusion of descriptive naturalism and symbolic abstraction. It was Ritter who grasped the personal identity of this tension when he states, regarding Mario Segantini’s sculpture, that in his plaster casts «le fait réaliste se hausse au symbole et recourt même à la couleur émaillée». This ability to surpass the real data in a pictorial-design synthesis where the linear simplifications and the chromatic-material exasperations, right up to the abstract use of gold, transpose the naturalistic element into a dimension of evocativeness, represents the most personal feature of Mario Segantini’s painting. It is to this aspiration, and to its sources, that the exaltation of the decorative element is related.

From this perspective, together with the Autoritratto of the same subject dated 1903, the Ritratto di William Ritter represents one of the most significant items that evidenced Mario Segantini affirming the independence and individuality of his style, that can be recognised in the very circularity between painting and sculpture, between realism and abstraction in the recycling of fifteenth-century models.

Based on the available documents, the personal relationship between William and Mario must have stopped, or changed substantially in the following years: contacts during 1903-1904 became rare, until they disappeared. The progressive deterioration of his marital relationship with Joséphine probably contributed, as well as the opening of an important and extremely complex personal period. The difficulty of making a name for himself in the artistic world, the dissatisfaction with the results achieved combined with pressing economic problems which also had significant repercussions on the relationship with his family of origin regarding the management of his father’s far from prosperous inheritance, led Mario to making personal, artistic and work decision that were not always prudent. The story of the painter’s trial and arrest in Berlin on charges of having voluntarily marketed his own works as works by Giovanni Segantini is emblematic. The judicial process, which due to the outcry was reminiscent of the case of Carl Böcklin and was covered by European and American newspapers, ended in a nine-month prison sentence.[33] It was a significant blow for the Segantini family who, a few years earlier, in 1904, had endured the tragedy of the suicide of Alberto, Giovanni’s second son. Commenting on the facts, Gottardo wrote to his mother: «You know that I have always been inclined to help Mario, to give him money despite my difficulties, money that he squandered without any benefit. When we abandoned him, he fell. When his father’s money ran out, poverty began, which led him to the illegal exploitation of his father’s name. All we are left with is pain: the law, whose arms are implacable and less benevolent than ours, has shown him that not everything is permitted. I know not whether Mario has understood the gravity of his actions or if he considers himself a martyr to the greed of the merchants, but his martyrdom was too based on selfishness to be able to excuse the scam. Our honor can only be saved by expelling Mario from the family, but that would be a mean act: we can only let the law take its course. After he serves his sentence, we will help him».[34]

As German newspapers reported, during these judicial problems, Mario’s conviction constituted only part «of an adventurous life beyond normal bourgeois terms and boundaries». Indeed, in 1907, Mario had spent a long period of time in America, where he had established himself as a boxer and had won, in Honduras, a sailing competition that lasted 20 days. An Alpine guide and expert skier, upon returning to Europe, Mario was also involved in the racing horse trade: at the time of his arrest, he was studying aviation with the pilot Poulain in Johannistal. Meanwhile, his artistic career continued to decline despite the support that was still guaranteed by the presence of Alberto Grubicy, who brought one of his paintings, La Vallée de Malenco[35], to Paris in 1907: the pictorial individuality established during the initial years of his training, perhaps stimulated by the evocations mediated by Ritter, had given way to a return to the bedrock of a more mannered Segantinism.

Death came to Mario Segantini at a very young age. In May 1915, he enlisted as a volunteer in the aviation teams at the front: wounded in the war, he died in Maloja in February 1916, when he had not yet turned thirty.

Niccolò D’Agati

[1] Feuilleton. Erinnerungen an Giovanni und Mario Segantini. Von Alice Gurschner (Paul Althof), «Neues Wiener Journal», 35 Jh., Nr. 12.082, Dienstag 12. July 1927, pp. 3-4.

[2] Per il ritratto di Mario Segantini di Gustav Gurschner: A. Melani, Negli ipogei dell’eclettismo, «L’Arte Decorativa Moderna», III, n. 1, 1905, pp. 12-19:15.

[3] The discovery of Mario’s birth certificate allows the artist’s personal data to be better substantiated. The following is the transcript of the deed conserved at the Civil State Archives in Milan: «In the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, on the fourth day of April at two hours and thirty minutes in the afternoon – in the Municipal House […]. appeared Segantini Giovanni, aged twenty-seven, a painter domiciled in this city and unmarried declared to me that at four and minutes in the morning – on the thirty-first day of last month, in the house located in Corso Venezia at number eighteen from his natural union with Bugatti Luigia, well-off, unmarried, not related or similar to him to the degrees that preclude recognition [I – domiciled here] a male child was born who he does not introduce to me, and to whom he gives the name of Mario Leopoldo. Witnesses to the above and to this deed were Quadrelli Emilio, aged twenty-two, a sculptor, and Rovelli Pietro, aged forty-three, a doorman, both residents in this Municipality. The declarant was excused by me from presenting the aforementioned child to me because he was indisposed and after I had otherwise ascertained the truth of the birth and gave me the special mandate received today from Doctor Pietro Capettini, a notary resident in Melzo, by virtue of which he is authorised to represent Bugatti Luigia, who as the mother of the aforementioned child intends to be nominated as a document with my visa is insert by me in the volume of attachments to this register. […] In deed to those present, they have signed it with me. Giovanni Segantini, Quadrelli Emilio, Rovelli Pietro, Ferrante Clerici».

[4] A. Mazzanti, “Il Maloja”: Piccolo giornale dei giovani Segantini, «Segantiniana», IV, 2019, pp. 78-90.

[5] Kulturarchiv Oberengadin – Archiv Culturel Engiadin’Ota [Hereinafter: KO], Segantini Archive 4, File 15, letter A 1472.

[6] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 1, letter A 106, 3 March 1900.

[7] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 2, letter A 228, 26 Novembee1900

[8] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 2, letter A 229, 28 November 1900

[9] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 5, letter A 448, 9 December 1901

[10] W. Ritter, Giovanni Segantini, Gesellschaft für Vervielfältigende Kuns, Vienna 1897. Italian translation: W. Ritter, Giovanni Segantini (Versione dal Tedesco), Tipografia Turazza, Treviso 1900. On the figure of William Ritter see, as a more recent and bibliographical reference: T. Chatelain, edited by, William Ritter (1867-1955). Amateur d’âmes – amateur d’art, «Nouvelle Revue neuchâteloise», 38, no. 150, 2021.

[11] VIII Internationale Kunstausstellung im Kgl. Glaspalast, München 1901, Illustrirter Katalog, Rudolf Mosse, Munich 1901: for the works exhibited by Segantini, p. 120, no. 1575, Die letzen Muhen des Tages, 1576 Einer mehr, 1577 Liebe auf den Bergen, 1578 Junge Ziege (Kopf.), 1578a Pflanzenstudie; p. 156 no. 2126 S. Moritz bei Nacht (Zeichnung).

[12] W. Ritter, L’VIII Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti a Monaco di Baviera, «Emporium», vol. XIV, no. 79, July 1901, pp. 61-77: 61.

[13] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 15, letter A 1527, 30 March 1901.

[14] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 15, letter A 1528, 8 April 1901.

[15] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 15, letter A 1529, 29 Aprl 1901.

[16] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 15, letter A 1530, 23 June 1901.

[17] Katalog. Grosse Berliner Kunst-Austellung, Berlino 1902, p. 127, nos. 1821-1823.

[18] A. N. Harzen-Muller, Musikalisches aus der großen Berliner Kunstausstellung und der Sezession 1902, «Die Musik», I, Septemberheft 1902, pp. 2063-2074:2071.

[19] Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Alberto Grubicy. Catalogo delle esposizioni collettive di G. Previati, E. Gola, L. Conconi, A. Tominetti, C. Fornara, F. Minozzi, C. Maggi, C. Ravasco (scultore), Gottardo e Mario Segantini, G. Martinelli & Co, Milan 1902, pp. 62-64. For a review: A.C., Un’interessante esposizione milanese, «Corriere della Sera», 27, no. 351, 22 December 1902, p. 4.: «Dei due giovani Segantini non vi sono che poche acqueforti, spesso tratte dai quadri del padre loro. Il saggio è scarso per trarre oroscopi sul lavoro avvenire, ma certo la promessa è lusinghiera».

[20] Gottardo wrote to Mario, but an examination of the catalogues for 1902-1903 did not reveal their participation: KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 5, letter A 543, 25 September 1902.

[21] Gottardo wrote to Mario: «Ho ricevuto il catalogo da Budapest, è molto importante, è esposta una sola delle tue due acquaforti, il babbo è presente con un disegno», KO, Segantini Archive 4 (File 5, letter A 531), 28 September 1902.

[22] Mario wrote to Gottardo: «l’esposizione con Keller ai primi dell’anno, non ho ancora parlato del contratto ma non sono così minchione da parlarne io per primo, so della Koenigs che lui ci tiene a farlo. I pettegolezzi su di noi credono vengano da un professore dell’accademia che vorrebbe essere nostro maestro, e poi si sono ingigantiti», KO, Segantini Archive 4 (File 6, letter A 592), 12 October 1902. The exhibition, according to the letters between Gottardo and Mario, was held in the spring of 1903: KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 6, letter A 687, 27 January 1903.

[23] OK, Segantini Archive 4, File 5, letter A 544, 30 September 1902.

[24] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 6, letter A 591, 7 October 1902.

[25] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 6, letter A 689, 11 January 1903.

[26] As highlighted, in the context od the culture at the end of the century, « Ritter synthétise de nombreux emblèmes de la subculture homosexuelle telle qu’elle s’est développée depuis la fin du xixe siècle, depuis la musique de Wagner et Mahler au culte pour les images de saint Sébastien», in X. Galmiche, Ce que William Ritter n’a pas appris à Le Corbusier, «Versants», vol. 66, núm. 1, Universität Bern 2019, pp. 7-18 : 15.

[27] W. Ritter, Leurs Lys et leurs Roses. Roma, Société du Mercure de France, Paris 1903, pp. 5-11.

[28] « toi qui as ton premier portrait dans le Frutto d’amore du chef-d’oeuvre dont une variante me fut le premier cadeau de Giovanni Segantini», therein.

[29] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 7, letter A 738, 29 March 1903.

[30] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 15, letter A1482, 3 June 1903 and File 9, letter A978, 3 June 1904.

[31] In April 1903, Mario wrote to Gottardo «Sono in completa rottura con William, per fortuna che c’è Marcel», KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 7, letter A 744, 10 April 1903. In June, Ritter wrote to Mario: «Fate tu i tuoi affari e Gottardo i suoi, ma non coinvolgetemi. Io ci sono solo come amico e per entrambi per questioni d’anima, non d’affari, solo il tempo dirà chi dei due aveva ragione», KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 7, letter A 769, 12 June 1903.

[32] W. Ritter, Mario et Gottardo Segantini, «La Semaine Littéraire», 11, 485, 18 April 1903, pp. 181-185.

[33] See: Un figlio di Segantini arresto per sospetto di truffa, «Corriere della Sera», 36, 43, 12 February 1911, p. 6; Da Berlino. Mario Segantini condannato per la falsificazione dei quadri paterni, «Corriere della Sera», 36, 184, 5 July 1911, p. 6.

[34] KO, Segantini Archive 4, File 13, letter A 1270, 9 May 1911.

[35] Catalogue du Salon des Peintres Divisionnistes Italiens organisé par la Galerie d’Art A. Grubicy de Milano, Paris 1907.