(Prestinone 1871–1968 Craveggia)
A view of Prestinone (Val Vigezzo), c. 1900, bearing the signature of
G. Segantini, oil on canvas, 90 x 80 cm, framed, (GG) 

Provenance:
European Private Collection.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Lodovico Magugliani, dipinti ed opere d’Arte in Collezioni Private. Antologia, Turin, 1968. Annie-Paule Quinsac, Segantini- Catalogo generale, Electa ed., Milan, vol. II, 1982, no. 73, p. 302.

The present painting depicts a bright winter’s day in the alpine village of Prestinone in the Vigezzo Valley where Carlo Fornara was born. 
It bears the signature of Giovanni Segantini but has been fully attributed by Dr Quinsac to Carlo Fornara. The composition, the fluid brushstrokes and the colours are indeed typical of Fornara’s work. He painted the present work with careful attention to the rendering of the effects of light. It can be dated to around 1900. 

Carlo Fornara studied under Enrico Cavalli (1849-1919) from 1884 to 1891, who had a major influence on his work.
In 1898, he joined Alberto Grubicy’s group of artists, which gave him financial stability and led to him being associated with Divisionist artists such as Segantini, Previati and Nomellini. 
Divisionism became the leading avant-garde movement in Italy in the 1890s. Based on the use of pure unmixed pigments, it produced works of remarkable precision suffused with natural light, particularly when seen at a distance, as in the present lot.
Fornara quickly gained international notoriety and, with the help of his dealer Alberto Grubicy, became a highly successful artist. He always remained faithful to Divisionism until his death in 1968.