Umberto Boccioni
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Young Man on a Riverbank by Umberto Boccioni, 1902
Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org
Supposedly Marinetti's Futurist manifesto singled out exactly this kind of quiet, moonlit mood as something painters needed to get over — funny seeing the movement's own future star drawing it a few years earlier.
Erisava: I think he did the right thing, moving on.
Self-Portrait by Umberto Boccioni, 1905
Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org
Public domain
They say Boccioni studied under Giacomo Balla in Rome around this time — another future Futurist — and you can see the dabbed, Divisionist brushwork they were both practicing before either of them started smashing forms apart for speed.
Erisava: He doesn't look like he's posing so much as daring you to say something.
Mia madre che lavora [My Mother Working] by Umberto Boccioni, 1907
![Mia madre che lavora [My Mother Working]](/images/uploads/347559f5-1417-4c5e-ac4a-086bb73edfc5-wikidata-Q77259179.jpg)
National Gallery of Art · wikidata.org
Apparently this is from before Boccioni signed onto Futurism in 1910 — a movement that made a point of rejecting quiet domestic scenes just like this one.
Erisava: Would this hang here if it weren't signed by someone famous?
Periphery [Periferia] by Umberto Boccioni, 1908
![Periphery [Periferia]](/images/uploads/7b08b6d5-112e-423a-8e3f-3d93c44d6f27-wikidata-Q77007813.jpg)
National Gallery of Art · wikidata.org
This is from years before Boccioni co-signed the Futurist manifesto and started painting industry as speed and noise instead of smoke drifting over a quiet field.
Erisava: I don't think anyone would look twice at this if Boccioni hadn't gotten famous later.