Q131586083

Completed in 1895, this canvas comes from the middle of one of the most transformative decades in Hodler's career. Following the international success of Night at the Paris Salon in 1891, he worked through a succession of large allegorical compositions — Day, Eurhythmy, The Disappointed Souls — that codified his Parallelism doctrine and established his position as Switzerland's preeminent Symbolist painter. By 1895 he was well-known in Francophone Europe and beginning to attract attention in German-speaking art circles. The mid-decade canvases often mediate between his figurative allegories and the landscape work that occupied increasing portions of his time. The Kunsthaus Zürich was actively acquiring Hodler's work throughout this period, building what would become the definitive institutional holding of his output.

Mid-1890s Hodler canvases display the fully formed linear method: strong outlines, deliberately flattened modelling, and a palette chosen for symbolic resonance over naturalistic accuracy. The drawing beneath the paint is confident and determines the composition. Colour passages are laid in with deliberate flatness, often with visible brushwork aligned to the structural axis of each form.