26 Facts About Ferdinand Hodler

Ferdinand Hodler is one of the best-known Swiss painters of the nineteenth century.

Ferdinand Hodler's mother remarried, to a decorative painter named Gottlieb Schupach who had five children from a previous marriage.

The family's finances were poor, and the nine-year-old Ferdinand Hodler was put to work assisting his stepfather in painting signs and other commercial projects.

From Sommer, Ferdinand Hodler learned the craft of painting conventional Alpine landscapes, typically copied from prints, which he sold in shops and to tourists.

In 1871, at the age of 18, Ferdinand Hodler travelled on foot to Geneva to start his career as a painter.

Ferdinand Hodler attended science lectures at the College de Geneve, and in the museum there he copied paintings by Alexandre Calame.

Ferdinand Hodler travelled to Madrid in 1878, where he stayed for several months and studied the works of masters such as Titian, Poussin, and Velazquez in the Museo del Prado.

Ferdinand Hodler submitted the painting to the Paris Salon, where it was his first work accepted, although it was ignored by the critics.

In 1884, Ferdinand Hodler met Augustine Dupin, who became his companion and model for the next several years.

From 1889 until their divorce in 1891, Ferdinand Hodler was married to Bertha Stucki, who is depicted in his painting, Poetry.

In 1898, Ferdinand Hodler married Berthe Jacques, whom he had met in 1894.

In 1890 he completed Night, a work that marked Ferdinand Hodler's turn toward symbolist imagery.

When Ferdinand Hodler submitted the painting to the Beaux-Arts exhibition in Geneva in February 1891, the entwined nude figures created a scandal; the mayor deemed the work obscene, and it was withdrawn from the show.

Ferdinand Hodler developed a style he called "parallelism" that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society.

Ferdinand Hodler conceived of woman as the embodiment of the desire for harmony with nature, while a child or youth represented innocence and vitality.

Ferdinand Hodler painted a number of large-scale historical paintings, often with patriotic themes.

The compositions he proposed, including The Battle of Marignan which depicted a battle that the Swiss lost, were controversial for their imagery and style, and Ferdinand Hodler was not permitted to execute the frescoes until 1900.

Ferdinand Hodler was invited to join both the Berlin Secession and the Vienna Secession groups.

Ferdinand Hodler anonymously sent a design showing a Freiburg herder, which was used 35 years later in the Swiss Pro Patria-Block of 1936.

In 1908, Ferdinand Hodler met Valentine Gode-Darel, who became his mistress, although he continued to live with his second wife.

In 1913, Gode-Darel was diagnosed with a gynecological cancer, and the many hours Ferdinand Hodler spent by her bedside resulted in a remarkable series of paintings documenting her decline from the disease.

Ferdinand Hodler occupied himself with work on a series of about 20 introspective self-portraits that date from 1916.

In 1908, the Swiss National Bank commissioned Ferdinand Hodler to create two designs for new paper currency.

Ferdinand Hodler's designs were controversial: rather than portraits of famous men, Hodler chose to depict a woodcutter and a reaper.

Much of Ferdinand Hodler's work is in public collections in Switzerland.

Many of Ferdinand Hodler's collectors were German Jews who were persecuted under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945.