The Fourth Estate

The Fourth Estate (Il quarto stato) is a monumental painting by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, completed in 1901 after nearly a decade of preparation. Now housed at the Museo del Novecento in Milan, this massive canvas measures 293 x 545 cm and depicts workers marching forward during a labor strike.

The painting shows three figures leading a crowd of strikers. They walk calmly toward the viewer, bathed in bright light while their shadows trail behind them. Pellizza used the Divisionist technique, applying pure colors in small strokes that blend optically. He made three full-scale preliminary versions to perfect his color effects.

The title references the working class as a new political force alongside the traditional estates of nobility, clergy, and commoners. Pellizza joined a socialist farmers' cooperative in his hometown of Volpedo and began the work after witnessing a workers' protest in Turin in 1891. Initially ignored by formal art circles, the painting became a powerful symbol for Italian socialist and progressive movements after the artist's death in 1907.