Symbolist painter Ferdinand Hodler was one of the leading Swiss artists of the late 19th century. His expressionistic portraits, landscapes, and historical and mythological scenes were admired by Viennese modernists like Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele. Hodler’s paintings display the influence of Post-Impressionists like Paul Gauguin, as well as the Realist style of Gustave Courbet. Because Hodler’s parents died when he was young and many of his siblings succumbed to tuberculosis in quick succession, death became a major theme in his work. His paintings exhibit a sense of mortality and reflections on the cycle of life. Hodler developed a style he called “parallelism,” which he believed expressed the unity of nature. In his compositions, symmetry and repetition—such as neat lines of trees or mountains reflected in lakes—represent the revelation of the natural order.
Das werk Ferdinand Hodlers
