GIUSEPPE PELLIZZA DA VOLPEDO
THE FOURTH ESTATE, 1898-1901, Oil on canvas
Acquired with a public subscription, 1920
History of a Masterpiece
Il Quarto Stato [The Fourth Estate] – the masterpiece painted by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907) – is an emblematic work from an artistic, technical, and social point of view.
The scene is set in a square in the painter’s hometown and represents the protest of a group of workers marching toward a better future, purporting the cohesive strength and dignity of labour as the starting point for the redemption of people.
It is a monumental painting on which Pelizza worked between 1898 and 1901; a period characterised by strikes, protests, and demands of the working class – all subjects that painting also addressed at the time.
The final version required a long period of study, lasting a decade. Three previous versions are known: Ambasciatori della fame [Ambassadors of Hunger] (1892), Fiumana [The Human River] (1895), and Il cammino dei lavoratori [Workers Marching] (1899), the latter being the closest version to the final painting that Pellizza entitled Il Quarto Stato drawing inspiration from the writings of Jean Jaurès on the French Revolution.
The painting was presented to the public at the 1902 Turin Quadriennale and remained unsold, although it soon became a famous and much reproduced icon for the message it conveyed. In 1920, in the heated climate of the Biennio Rosso (a two-year period of intense social conflict in Italy), Il Quarto Stato reached Milan on the occasion of a solo show at Galleria Pesaro. The uproar it raised was such that a public subscription was launched to ensure that the City would purchase it. It was initially exhibited in Sala della Balla of Castello Sforzesco and was later moved to Galleria d’Arte Moderna to be displayed in its current seat of Villa Reale.
After World War II, the painting was transferred to Palazzo Marino, the City Hall of Milan, as a symbol of democracy and civil rights. It is no coincidence that, in 1979, it would be chosen by filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci for his film Novecento.
It was rediscovered as a masterpiece of Italian painting while studies of Divisionism flourished, concomitantly with its exhibition in London and Washington. In 1980, it was transferred back to Galleria d’Arte Moderna. After a decade, when it marked the spectacular opening of Museo del Novecento, inaugurated in 2010, this monumental painting was returned to the Gallery of Modern Art in July 2022.