Q131586098

Painted in 1911, this canvas belongs to the late flowering of Hodler's mature phase, two years after the Jena University Aula mural was installed and four years before the death of Valentine Godé-Darel would mark a biographical watershed. In 1911 Hodler was a European figure: exhibiting regularly in Germany, Austria, and France, corresponding with admirers across the continent, and working simultaneously on grand historical compositions and intimate alpine landscapes. The Kunsthaus Zürich had by now assembled a collection of his work unmatched elsewhere, and the institution's consistent support provided both financial stability and a model for other Swiss cultural bodies. The 1911 canvases reflect the secure confidence of an artist whose formal language had long been established and who was exploring its expressive potential rather than continuing to develop its structural principles.

By 1911 Hodler's paint handling shows characteristic features of his late-middle style: broad, firm strokes laying in tonal masses, more visible paint texture than the earlier compressed surfaces, and a colour palette of striking clarity. Blues are particularly luminous, suggesting both the alpine sky and water subjects he frequently chose and a chromatic ambition influenced by his awareness of Fauve colour intensity.