The Evil Mothers

In the midst of an icy winter landscape, a young woman is writhing, caught in a tree. She is entangled in its branches, while her child suckles from her breast. But the mother struggles against the infant with all her might. In his 1894 painting “The Evil Mothers”, Giovanni Segantini addresses the controversial subject of unwanted pregnancies. He based his pictorial idea on a poem by Luigi Illica, which was inspired by a Buddhist saga. Segantini created a poetic interpretation of the dilemmas surrounding female sexuality and motherhood.