Q131586079

Painted in 1916, this late canvas belongs to the most emotionally charged years of Ferdinand Hodler's life. His companion Valentine Godé-Darel had died of cancer in January 1915, and Hodler had documented her illness and dying in dozens of drawings and paintings — an act of grief and witness without precedent in Swiss art. The following years saw him return repeatedly to landscapes, particularly the Alps and Lake Geneva, finding in their elemental permanence a counterweight to personal loss. Simultaneously, he became embroiled in public controversy when he signed a letter protesting the German bombardment of Reims Cathedral in 1914 — a political statement that cost him significant German patrons but was widely celebrated in the French-speaking world. The 1916 canvases balance private sorrow with renewed formal confidence, their simplified forms and intense colour carrying an existential weight.

Late Hodler canvases of 1916 often show a broadening and loosening of touch compared with the precise contours of his 1900s work. Colour becomes more assertive — vivid blues, intense greens, sharp yellows — while forms remain structurally clear. The paint surface is more animated, with the texture of individual strokes contributing to the expressive character of the whole.