The blackcaps

The Blackcaps (1884) takes its title from the blackcap mushrooms (cappelli neri) that peasant women wore in the Brianza region of Lombardy, and belongs to Segantini's documentation of north Italian rural life in the early 1880s. By 1884 he had settled in Veduggio con Colzago in the Brianza hills, moving from Milan to live more directly within the agricultural communities he painted. The blackcap was a distinctive item of regional dress that marked these women as belonging to a specific place and social class — Segantini's interest in such documentary specificity reflects the influence of the Italian Veristi movement. The Policlinico of Milan holds this work — an unusual institutional location that suggests the painting may have been donated or acquired through civic rather than museum channels, perhaps as part of a historical gift. By 1884 Segantini had exhibited successfully at the Brera and was attracting collectors and critical attention, though his international fame still lay in the future. The painting represents his most concentrated engagement with folk costume and regional identity before the Alps took over as his primary subject.

The technique in 1884 still relies primarily on tonal modelling with limited divisionist experimentation. The distinctive blackcap headdresses provide the compositional focus, with Segantini rendering their forms with particular care. The figures are grouped in a way that suggests observed social reality rather than composed genre convention.