Der Genfersee von St Prex aus

Der Genfersee von St Prex aus (Lake Geneva from Saint-Prex) by Ferdinand Hodler from 1901 belongs to his extended series of Lake Geneva paintings made from various points along the northern shore. Saint-Prex, a small medieval town west of Lausanne, provided Hodler with a vantage point from which the immense horizontal expanse of the lake filled the visual field, with the Savoy Alps rising beyond the French shore on the opposite bank. These Lake Geneva views were central to Hodler's theory of Parallelism — the idea that nature's horizontal rhythms express universal order — and the lake's flat surface, the distant mountain silhouette, and the sky above formed three parallel bands that embodied his philosophical vision.

Hodler employs his characteristic horizontal banding to organize the composition: lake, distant mountain range, and sky occupy distinct zones, each treated with a different but rhythmically related surface texture. His outlines are precise and his palette vivid, giving the landscape an almost poster-like clarity.