Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Le ciliegie
The dual nature of the work of art – understood both as a social phenomenon and as an autonomous product of the creative spirit – has undoubtedly reached its zenith in Pellizza da Volpedo’s masterpiece, entitled The Fourth Estate, one of the most politically engaged paintings in the history of art.
Pellizza is a humanist, ever attentive to the plight of society’s most marginalised.
The work in question draws the viewer into a rural and profoundly authentic setting, marking a key milestone in the early output of the Piedmontese master. Painted before his shift towards Divisionism, the composition highlights his commitment to a straightforward form of Verismo, attentive to the dignity of everyday life amongst the working and peasant classes.
The composition depicts three young figures in an outdoor domestic setting. On the right, a young girl, with calm and measured gestures, holds in her hands a large plate brimming with ripe cherries. On the left, two other youthful faces emerge in the background: one figure gazes intently at the central figure, whilst beside her, another, with half-closed eyes and her head tilted back, appears entirely focused on the plate of fruit.
In the background, the setting is rendered with extraordinary, rustic simplicity: a white sheet, hung out to dry on a line, serves as a luminous backdrop behind the young woman seen in profile. The expressive power of the work lies in the application of colour, characterised by full, dense and structured brushstrokes.
Within the exhibition, this painting stands out sharply from the literary idealisations or the fictions of high-society portraiture. Pellizza da Volpedo chooses not to depict an extraordinary event, but elevates a fragment of peasant life to a moment of solemn and poetic harmony, presenting a portrait of the working woman captured in her most genuine and proud everyday simplicity.