A symbolist vision
MúzeumCafé 7.
For the first time in Hungary the Museum of Fine Arts is hosting a large-scale exhibition of paintings by the Swiss Symbolist artist, Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918). Hodler’s exhibition is part of a series introducing great European artists initiated by the museum. MúzeumCafé spoke to Dr. Katharina Schmidt, who was assisted by Péter Újvári on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition begins with a self-portrait which Hodler painted not long after he had left the Bern Highlands for Geneva in 1873, a move he undertook since he wanted to emulate works by Genevan artists painting in Romantic style. For a long time Hodler could not afford models, therefore he painted himself and his friends. He made many self-portraits, of which an early significant work is his Student of 1874. The canvasses in the background refer to the process of painting, the measuring tools indicate the necessity for precise observation and the books signify Hodler as a pictor doctus ‘an educated artist’. The artist’s trip to Spain in 1878-79 was decisive. His canvasses became brighter and the backgrounds filled with light as a result of his seeing the masterpieces in the Prado. We can observe how the artist condenses the images and how the colours became lighter, both in his Realist landscapes and portraits, though his personal misery continued. Hodler’s parents and siblings died of tuberculosis and he knew the darker side of life from within. His living conditions changed considerably after he regularly entered his paintings for landscape competitions, which awarded prizes of substantial sums. One competition called for paintings depicting woodcutters in the spring forest. Hodler met the requirements. However, since he preferred separating landscape and human figures, he later removed the woodcutters but painted a couple of symbolic figures on the surface. In his series of landscapes rendered in the 1890s, reflection appears, as do aspects of plane and space or motifs (a road, a meadow, a young tree), which can be interpreted with a double meaning and refer to both the concrete image and human life. Hodler depicts figures plastically with the body in three-dimensions, while the background remains one-dimensional and abstract. This is well demonstrated by Dialogue with Nature (1884) from Bern, which has never been loaned before. The rendering of the figure shows the influence of Egyptian art – Geneva was indeed the centre of Egyptology at the time. Night from 1889/90, which the artist called the great symbol of death, is the opening work of his Symbolist period. The painting immediately made him internationally well-known.” The idea of the female Eurythmia first came to him in 1901 and he painted small and large variations. Hodler cut up a few small sketches for some reason and these have been put next to each other for the first time since 1906. Landscapes without figures are displayed in the next hall. They include the painting from the Kunstmuseum Basel which Katharina Schmidt had never lent. Snowy landscapes, mountainous scenes pointing towards full abstraction – visions of infinity follow one another.