Ferdinand Hodler

The painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) is not nearly as famous in our country as he is in his native Switzerland, where he is regarded as a revered celebrity. Like Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch, Hodler produced a completely self-willed oeuvre. By this, he proved to be the pioneer for the 20th century art. Artists such as Kandinsky, Munch and Kirchner studied Hodler's work closely and admired him for his use of form and colour. In his first paintings, the Swiss artist depicts religious themes which he bends to his will, but the overwhelming mountainous landscape of the Bern Oberland is also an important source of inspiration. Hodler became well-known for his symbolic paintings, in which he expresses his social conscience and concentrates on inner and philosophical concepts rather than on the surrounding reality. The book emphasizes the symbolic works, the landscapes and the portraits. The series of portraits he made of his beloved Valentine God233;-Darel, which chronicles her illness until her death is especially impressive.