Art! Art! Art! › Works

The Evil Mothers

Giovanni Segantini, 1894

Giovanni Segantini's The Evil Mothers, dated 1894, sets a haunting Symbolist vision in a frozen mountain landscape. It belongs to the Belvedere, where its broad horizontal canvas, 105 by 200 cm, invites slow viewing from both near and far.

Where to see it

The Evil Mothers is in the collection of the Belvedere, and the Belvedere is listed as its location. Display arrangements can change because of rehanging, conservation or loans, so check the Belvedere's official website for current display status before you visit.

What to look for in person

The woman caught in the tree

Look first at the figure tangled in the bare branches of a leafless tree. Her body bends back, her long hair seems knotted into the wood, and a small child presses against her breast. Segantini turns the tree into something like a trap or a cage, so the woman appears both held and helpless. Notice how pale her skin and drapery are against the dark, twisting branches. It is the emotional centre of the composition, and the contrast between the tender act of nursing and her strained pose gives the image its unsettling force.

A frozen Alpine world

Step back and take in the setting: a wide, snow-covered expanse with mountains rising toward a cold sky. Segantini was closely tied to the Alps, and here the landscape is not a pleasant view but a place of isolation and penance. The long horizontal format, 200 cm across, stretches the empty snowfield so that the figures seem small and exposed. Look at how the light falls across the snow and the distant peaks, giving the scene a still, silent atmosphere that heightens its dreamlike, Symbolist mood.

Divisionist brushwork up close

Move closer and the surface changes. Segantini is regarded as a leading figure of Italian Divisionism, building up his paintings with separate, fibrous strokes of colour rather than smooth blended paint. In the snow and sky you can often pick out threads of different tones laid side by side, which the eye mixes at a distance into shimmering light. Comparing the view from a few steps away with the view from close range is one of the most rewarding ways to spend time with this painting.

About the painting

The Evil Mothers is a work by Giovanni Segantini, dated 1894, and is held by the Belvedere. Measuring 105 cm high and 200 cm wide, it is a large, panoramic canvas that combines two strands of Segantini's art: his long engagement with the high mountain landscape and his turn toward Symbolism in the later part of his career. The subject is generally understood as the punishment of women who rejected or failed in motherhood. In Segantini's vision they are condemned to drift through an icy wasteland, trapped in barren trees, and the image is commonly linked to a poem known as Nirvana, which draws on ideas of penance and redemption. In the painting, the child at the woman's breast is often read as a sign that redemption remains possible, turning a scene of punishment into one of reconciliation. For visitors, the work rewards attention to both its meaning and its making. The theme is stark and may seem harsh to modern eyes, reflecting attitudes of the late nineteenth century toward women and motherhood. Yet the painting's power also lies in its atmosphere: the hushed white landscape, the contorted trees and the cold, clear light. Segantini's Divisionist technique, with its separate strokes of colour, gives the snow and sky a vibrating luminosity that is best appreciated in person. Spend time with the central figure, then let your eye travel across the wide snowfield and toward the mountains. The tension between the vast, indifferent landscape and the small, suffering figures is central to the experience of standing before this canvas.

Key facts

Sources

• Wikidata Q749201
• www.belvedere.at