Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo ( born July 28, 1868 in Volpedo, † June 14, 1907 ibid ) was a painter and representatives of Italian realism.

Giuseppe Pellizza came from a family of farmers in the southern Piedmont, who had her little leasehold in the wake of land reforms can acquire. Pelizza was a student of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. He was influenced by Giovanni Segantini. He turned mainly on social issues.

His monumental painting Il quarto Stato ( The Fourth Estate ), which he painted in the years 1898 to 1901 and the 2.93 x 5.45 meters tall may be referred to as the highlight of socially engaged art realistic end of the 19th century. About ten years Pellizza worked on this topic. He made his sketches, among others at rallies and strikes by workers during the great agrarian crisis. To him, it was not about the real reality, but an idealized reality. The painting is considered as a monument of the labor movement.

On 14 June 1907, he hanged himself in his studio just before his painting Il quarto stato.

Bernardo Bertolucci's film 1900 starts with an opening shots of the image.