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| Die Nacht, 1890 |
Hodler (14th March 1853 – 19th May
1918) was hailed as helping to revitalise monumental wall painting and his work
was thought to embody the ‘Swiss federal identity’ Many of his best-known
paintings are scenes in which characters are engaged in everyday activities,
such as the famous woodcutter (Der Holzfäller, 1910, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). In
1908, the Swiss National Bank commissioned Hodler to create two designs for new
paper currency. His designs were controversial: rather than portraits of famous
men, Hodler chose to depict a woodcutter (for the 50 Swiss Franc bank note) and
a reaper (for the 100 Franc note)
Winterthur Kunstmuseum features many of Hodler’s works in
the main collection and includes works such as Die Empfindung (1908) and Der
Redner, Studie zur Einmütigkeit (1913) in the current Ferdinand Hodler – AlbertoGiacometti. An Encounter.
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| Der Redner, Studie zur Einmütigkeit (1913) |
He was born in Bern, the eldest of six children. By the time
he was eight years old, he had lost his father and two younger brothers to
tuberculosis. His mother remarried to a decorative painter named Gottlieb
Schüpach who had five children from a previous marriage and the birth of more
children brought the size of Hodler's family to thirteen.
The family was poor, and nine-year-old Hodler was put to
work assisting his stepfather in painting signs and other commercial projects.
After the death of his mother from tuberculosis in 1867, Hodler was sent to
Thun to apprentice with a local painter, Ferdinand Sommer where he learned the
craft of painting conventional Alpine landscapes, typically copied from prints,
which he sold in shops and to tourists.
At the age of 18, Hodler travelled on foot more than 160km to
Geneva to start his career as a painter. He later travelled to Basel where he
studied the paintings of Hans Holbein - especially Dead Christ in the Tomb –
and Madrid in 1878 to study the masters such as Titian, Poussin, and Velázquez
at the Museo del Prado.
The works of Hodler's early artwork consisted of landscapes,
figure compositions, and portraits, treated with a vigorous realism and in the
last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences
from symbolism and art nouveau. His turning point was the creation of Night in
1890 which created a scandal at the Beaux-Arts exhibition in Geneva a year
later. However, a few months later, it was exhibited in Paris at the Salon
where it attracted favourable attention and was championed by Rodin.
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| Die Empfindung (1908) |
Hodler developed a style he called ‘parallelism’ that
emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human
society. In paintings such as The Chosen One (1893), groupings of figures are
symmetrically arranged in poses suggesting ritual or dance. Hodler thought of
woman as embodying the desire for harmony with nature, while a child represented
innocence and vitality.
After several divorces Hodler met Valentine Godé-Darel in
1908 who became his mistress. She was diagnosed with cancer in 1913, and the
many hours Hodler spent by her bedside resulted in a remarkable series of
paintings documenting her decline from the disease. Some of these are currently
being exhibited in the Ferdinand Hodler – Alberto Giacometti. AnEncounter exhibition at Winterthur Kunstmuseum. Valentine’s death in 1915 affected Hodler greatly and he
died just three years later.
Winterthur Kunstmuseum website.
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