The Fourth Estate

1898–1901

Oil on canvas, 283 × 550 cm. Galleria d'Arte Moderna (GAM), Milan

A broad line of working men and women strides out of shadow toward the viewer. On a huge canvas, a workers' march takes on the scale of history painting.

Here the divisionist method serves a political subject rather than a landscape. In Italy, painters of the group used effects of light to heighten feeling.
The 1902 Turin Quadriennale showed it first, and it did not sell there.
Look at the woman beside the two leading men, carrying a baby as she steps forward.
It grew out of about a decade of studies and three earlier versions.
Milan bought it by public subscription in 1920.

The museum says the final title drew on Jean Jaurès's writings on the French Revolution, casting working people as a fourth estate. It was painted in years of strikes, protests and workers' demands.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain