Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) Swiss Art Nouveau Painter

Portrait of Helene Weigle

Emotion, 1902

Born in Bern, Ferdinand Hodler settled in Geneva in 1872, where he lived until his death. His subjects such as landscapes of the snow-capped Alps dotted with lakes, his portraits and his historical pictures made on commission established him as one of the leading artists of his country and one who attracted some loyal supporters at an early stage in his career.

Lake Geneva from Chexbres (1905)

Woman in Ecstasy, 1911

To this day by far the greater part of his extensive oeuvre is preserved in prominent Swiss museums and important private collections. In the early days of his career Hodler followed a realist approach but his landscapes and genre scenes soon revealed his desire to render ideals and the spiritual aspect of what he depicted rather than to create merely atmospheric compositions. It was primarily thanks to his friends in Geneva – including some members of the literati associated with the symbolists of Paris – that his art developed in the above direction and that his talent was eventually manifested in large figural monumental painting.

The Consecrated One

Hodler tried to provide a theoretical framework for his painting imbued with pantheism. Being enchanted with geometry and the newly emerged natural sciences he relied on the principle of parallelism derived from Nature which he applied in his compositions with increasing consistency, by applying techniques such as co-ordination, mirroring and symmetry.

Night

Hodler’s landscapes always met with great success; however, his monumental, symbolic figural canvases manifesting his individual style defined by his own choice of subjects, strict lines, forms and composition as well as arbitrarily applied colors won acclaim only when his painting entitled “Night” was exhibited first in Paris in 1891 and shortly after that in Munich, Venice, Berlin and Vienna.

From the 1904 exhibition of the Vienna Secession – which earned Hodler not only artistic but also financial recognition – he was recognized as being one of the leading figures of the European Secession. From this time he was regularly invited to prominent exhibitions and received many awards. artknowledgenews.com

Tired of Life, 1892

Hodler was the eldest of six children. His father made a meager living as a carpenter. His mother was from a peasant family. By the age of 8, Hodler had lost his father and two younger brothers to tuberculosis. His mother, remarried to a decorative painter, also died of tuberculosis in 1867. Eventually the disease killed all of Hodler's remaining siblings, instilling in the artist a powerful consciousness of mortality.

Youth Admired by Women

Hodler mostly worked in Geneva, but traveled all over Switzerland, spending summers in the mountains.
Augustine Dupin, his model, became his companions from 1884 until her death in 1908. The couple never married but they had a son Hector.
In 1887, Hodler met Bertha Stuck and 2 years later he married her. They divorced after two years of marriage.

Day (Truth)

1894 - Hodler met Berthe Jacques, a schoolteacher, who was his model and later she became his second wife. Between 1901 and 1916 he also maintained an amorous relationship with another model - Jeanne Charles.
At the age of 55 (1908), Hodler met Valentine Gode-Darel (35), a porcelain painter.
Sadly, in January 1914, only 3 months after the birth of their daughter, Pauline, Godé-Darel had an operation for a gynecologic cancer, from which she died 1 year later. Between 1912 and 1915, Hodler painted her many times. He documented her wasting and eventual extinction without mercy and yet with intense sympathy.
Hodler died in Geneva leaving behind a number of unfinished works portraying the city.

View into Infinity

The Holy Hour, 1912

Portrait of Berthe Jacques

A Troubled Soul

Forest Stream

Léman Bleu, 1904

Autumn Evening

The Lilac

Apple Trees

Cherry Tree in Bloom

Lake Geneva with the Jura and Clouds, 1911

Grammont

Landscape with Lake Geneva, c.1906

The Salève in Fall, 1891

The Watchmaking Workshop in Madrid, 1879

The Pension, 1879

The Miller and His Son with a Donkey

Die Überfahrt zur Kirche, 1879-80

Portrait of Gertrud Muller

The Convalescent

Portrait of Baroness Maria von Bach

Bertha Stuck with Flower, 1888

The Artist's Wife

Portrait of the painter P. Taddéoli, 1885

Spring, 1901

Dream

Adoration

Storm, 1886

Self Portrait, 1873

Self Portrait, 1873

Self Portrait as Student, 1874

Self Portrait, 1912

Self Portrait

Self Portrait, 1915

The Boy with a Pen (Ferdinand Hodler's Brother August), 1875

Reading Man

Lardet's Daughter (1878)

Song from a Distance, 1906

1910

1908

1892

The Courageous Woman, 1886

Landscape with Thun Lake

At the Foot of Mountain Saleve

Lake Geneva from Chexbres, 1905

The Burgäschisee, c. 1901

The Dents Blanches Champéry in the Morning Sun, 1916

1902

The Grand Muveran, c.1912

Mountain Stream at Champery

1912

Mother and Child

Pensies

1911

1911

1885

Portrait of Louise Delphine Duchosal

The Disillusioned One

1884

Student at Jena, 1908

The Merciful Samaritan, 1875

The Red Portrait of Valentine Gode-Darel, 1910

The Sick Valentine Gode-Darel, 1914

1914

The Dying Woman, January 24, 1915

The Dying Valentine Gode-Darel, 1915

1884

The Reaper

Lake Thun from the Path to Schynigen Plate, 1906

Lake Thun, Niesen

1891

The Tree, 1895

Meadow, c. 1901

Pastures on the Rhone, circa 1885