The Fourth Estate (painting)

The Fourth Estate
Italian: Il quarto stato, Spanish: El Cuarto Estado
ArtistGiuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo
Yearc. 1901
TypeOil on canvas[1]: 323 
Dimensions293 cm × 545 cm (115 in × 215 in)[1]: 323 
LocationGalleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan

The Fourth Estate (Italian: Il quarto stato) is an oil painting by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, originally titled The Path of Workers and made between 1898 and 1901.[2] It depicts a moment during a labor strike when workers' representatives calmly and confidently stride out of a crowd to negotiate for the workers' rights. Its name refers to the working class as standing alongside the three traditional estates that divided power between the nobility, clergy, and commoners.

Pellizza made three separate large-scale preliminary versions of the work to experiment with his divisionist representations of color. After his death, The Fourth Estate became a popular Italian socialist image and was reproduced extensively despite its initial shunning by formal art circles. Over time, its acclaim grew until it became recognized as one of the most important Italian paintings of the turn of the 20th century. The painting is now at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Pucci was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Novecento, Museo del. "Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and The Fourth Estate". www.museodelnovecento.org. Archived from the original on January 26, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2019.