Ragazzo che munge nella stalla

In this small charcoal drawing, which Segantini completed during his long sojourn in the Graubünden canton, dim light filters from the back of the stable and illuminates the scene of the boy milking, which occupies almost all the picture.
The boy’s body presses against that of the animal in an intimacy that elevates participation in the natural events of life, whether of beast or man, to the status of a symbol of the pure and great nobility of one of the humblest tasks.
Faithful in this sense to those branches of 19th-century symbolism that combined the universal exaltation of life with the accurate depiction of reality, in this valuable work Giovanni Segantini leaves a precious testimony of his art.