Today I took a trip to Riehen by Basel – right on the French/German/Swiss border – to visit the Beyeler Museum, which has a Segantini exhibition on at the moment.

Segantini is one of my favourites of the Alpine painters – actually an Italian by birth, he settled in the Engadin in the south of Switzerland and became famous for his pictures of the Alps painted in the Divisionist style. His pictures are full of cows and country folk and mountains of course and most are painted in a style that radiates light and colour. They are really unlike those of any other painter I know, except those of his son.

Many of the works on show have been loaned by the fabulous Segantini museum in St. Moritz. If you are ever within a hundred miles of St. Moritz this museum is a must – and contains in my opinion Segantini’s Meisterwerk, a huge Alpine tryptich – three giant panels showing three different scenes which are displayed together. They are amazing and unforgettable and I imagine size, value and logistics are the reason that they weren’t on show in the exhibition today.

The museum is small and frequently hosts fabulous exhibitions. It’s worth visiting just on the grounds that it’s a perfect exhibition space…

and the coffee shop is not to be sniffed at either…

nor is Riehen, an enchanting small town, with a quilting shop that I would have visited if it hadn’t happened to be a Sunday.

So if you’re ever in the neighbourhood, do pay a visit!

Helen

This entry was posted on Monday, April 18th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.