In my last post I broached the question of why so many of the major figures of Italian Symbolist painting appear not to be known outside of their native country, to the point at which a survey of the history of the movement by Gerhardius overlooks them almost entirely. Puzzled by this situation I have had a little time today to look into the matter. The explanation I suspected turns out to have been an important factor, namely, few of them travelled and worked outside of their native country.
Giovanni Segantini (who does make it into the survey by Gerhardius) lived in Switzerland for many years, and exhibited both in Brussels and at the World Fair of 1883. Umberto Boccioni lived and worked in Paris and also (briefly) in Russia. His wider reputation actually seems to be based not so much upon his work within the Symbolist tradition as his association with the Futurists. (He was a signatory of the original Futurist manifesto.) Other notable Italian painters, possibly of greater significance for the development of Symbolism, such as Plinio Nomellini and Gaetano Previati, didn’t extend their careers into the major western European capitals, and as a consequence remained “invisible” outside of their own country.
There is an interesting parallel here between the fate of Italian modernists and that of provincial painters in the UK at the present time. Unless one is able to make a mark in the London art scene it is unlikely that one will really develop an artistic career. I guess that the same might be true in many other countries. I know that readers of this blog are drawn from a variety of different parts of the world and I would be very interested to hear their observations about the situation in their own countries.