Severini, Gino (1883-1966)
La Modiste (The Milliner)
1910–1911
Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 48.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
This effervescent painting of a young hatmaker strolling in the street was included in the first Futurist exhibition in Paris, held in February 1912. It conveys a sense of whirling motion through a combination of shifting planes of color and repeated elements of the hatmaker’s figure. Italian Futurism celebrated the speed, fragmentation, and sensory overload of modern cities. (PMoA)