Les Artistes

FERDINAND HODLER

Self-potrait

Ferdinand Hodler is one of the few swiss painters with a worldwide reputation. In his painting, he attempted to achieve a synthetis of Impressionism, Realism and Simbolism.

The works of Hodler’s early maturity consisted of landscapes, figure compositions and portraits, treated with a vigorous realism.

Grammont

Thunersee

The Breithorn

Hilly Landscape With Ravens In The Bernese Oberland

Lake Thun Landscape

Mountain Stream At Champery

Portrait Of Louise Delphine Duchosal

The Convalescent

Portrait Of Helene Weigle

Spring

A Troubled Soul

He made a trip to Basel in 1875, where he studied the paintings of Hans Holbein—especially Dead Christ in the Tomb, which influenced Hodler’s many treatments of the theme of death.

The Good Samaritan

The Dying Valentine Gode-Darel

The Night

In the last decade of the 19th century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including symbolism and art nouveau. He developed a style which he called Parallelism, characterized by groupings of figures symmetrically arranged in poses suggesting ritual or dance.

Truth

Der Tag

Youth Admired By Women

The Consecrated One

Hodler’s work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly coloured and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky.

Sunset On Lake Geneva

However, the most famous of Hodler’s paintings portray scenes in which characters are engaged in everyday activities, such as the famous woodcutter (Der Holzfäller, Musée d’Orsay, Paris). This picture went on to appear on the back of the 50 Swiss Franc bank note issued by the Swiss National Bank.

The Woodcutter

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