Q131586698

Among the 1917 canvases in this batch, this late work shares the characteristics of Hodler's final sustained creative phase. His health was declining — he would die in May 1918 — but the 1917 output shows no diminishment of formal intelligence or expressive ambition. Late Hodler landscapes are among the most quietly monumental works in European Post-Impressionist painting: stripped to essential elements, coloured with absolute directness, organized with the geometric clarity of a lifetime's discipline. The Kunsthaus Zürich, which holds the most comprehensive body of his late work, has enabled scholars to trace the final evolution of his vision from the full representational detail of the middle period to the near-abstract elemental statements of the last years.

The 1917 technique is characterised by its combination of formal certainty and loose, immediate application. Colour areas are decisive and their edges clear, but within each zone the brushwork is free and varied. The paint surface has the quality of work made with both speed and complete intention — marks placed once, with full commitment, rather than built up through cautious revision.