Segantini continued to gain recognition in Italy, and in 1894 the Castello Sforzesco in Milan put on a retrospective of ninety of his works. At the first Venice Biennale in 1895, Segantini was awarded the Prize of the Italian State for his painting "Return to the Homeland". He continued to gain fame when a whole room was devoted to his work in the Munich Secession in 1896. After seeing his painting "The Sad Hour" in Munich, the director of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin purchased the work for that museum. That same year his painting "Ploughing" is bought by the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.