Ferdinand Hodler explored Parallelisme through figurative poses evocative of music, dance and ritual. His images of sex, night, desertion and death as well as his many landscapes exploring the universal longing for harmony with Nature are unique and important works embodying a Symbolist paradigm. Truly a Modern Master, Hodler’s influence can be felt in the work of Gustav Klimt and Kolomon Moser and subsequent Expressionist artists such as Egon Schiele. He was born into an impoverished family in Bern, Switzerland in 1853. His entire family succumbed to tuberculosis, and he was orphaned by the age of 13, the only surviving child among his 13 siblings. In the absence of family, the influence and guidance which his art instructors provided Hodler was foundational and profound. Hodler began formal studies in 1872 at the Geneva School of Design. Under Barthelemy Menn, Hodler was drawn to the ordered beauty of Euclidian geometry and Durer’s fundamentals of human proportion that proved to be guiding principles informing his art throughout his life.
By the 1880s, Hodler began to enjoy some recognition for his work which put him on a new path towards stability. Remaining in Geneva, he became assistant to the well-known muralist, Edouard Castres. Following his first solo show in 1885, Hodler’s work took on a Symbolist quality. He frequently associated with a group of Swiss Symbolist poets who described how his work “make(s) use of naturalism to create the Ideal.” His break-out moment occurred in 1891 with his painting, “Night.” Judged obscene and excluded from the exhibition held by Musee Rath in Geneva, Hodler took one out of the Salon des Refuses’ playbook and defiantly and proudly showed the painting independently in Geneva. From there, he exhibited the painting in Paris at the Salon du Champ-de-Mars where it won accolades. It was so well-received, Hodler was invited to join Sar Peladin’s Salon de la Rose et Croix and la Societe Nationale des Artistes Francais.
Back in Switzerland, he won a prestigious commission in 1896 to paint murals for the Weapons Hall at the Landesmuseum in Zurich depicting the Battle of Marignano. His Modernist approach resulted in so much controversy, hotly debated even in the Swiss parliament, that it was not until 1902 that his extensively revised murals came to fruition. In his 1897 address to the Societe des Amis des Arts in Freiburg regarding the Artist’s Mission, Hodler outlined the governing principles to his approach to art as “nature exalted, simplified, liberated of all detail,” and called it Parallelisme. As an artist, he viewed nature in terms of a flat surface, where repetitive, symmetrical, rhythmic and harmonic patterns convey both a philosophical and spiritual higher order.
That same year, Hodler was awarded a gold medal at the Munich International Art Exhibition. He was fast becoming the darling of the art world from France to Austria. Again, in 1900, Hodler’s work received gold at l’Exposition Universelle in Paris. By 1903, Hodler was something of a celebrity. He became a professor at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and was invited to show at the XIXth Vienna Secession for whom he created the show’s poster. Referred to as a Jugendstil Master, until the outbreak of WWI, Hodler’s star continued to burn brightly. Hodler’s work was actively collected and public commissions for large-scale murals in Switzerland kept coming. He was made an Officer of the French Legion of Honnor and Bourgeois d’honneur of the city of Geneva. Hodler was a distinguished member of the Societe des Peintres Sculpteurs et Architectes Suisses and fondly referred to as the greatest Swiss artist.