Ferdinand Hodler

Privatbesitz, Schweiz
Christie's, Zürich, 07.06.2010, Nr. 116
Privatbesitz, Schweiz

Bern, Kunstmuseum, Hodler-Gedächtnisausstellung, 1921, Nr. 262 (Was die Blumen sagen)

Johannes Widmer, "Ferdinand Hodler", in: Pages d'Art, Genf 1916, S. 87
Carl Albert Loosli, Ferdinand Hodler, Leben, Werk und Nachlass, Bern 1921-1924, Nr. 2193 (Was die Blumen sagen)

Not relined. Craquelure mostly visible to the lower left and in the white of the clouds. Scattered fly spot in the middle of the right side. Under UV-light scattered minor retouching visible in the blue dress, in the blue in the middle to the left side and in the upper right corner. Minor retouching in the stones to the left. Good condition
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Die blau gewandete, weibliche Gestalt mit weissem Umhang hält in ihrer rechten Hand eine langstielige Blume. Der nach innen gerichtete Blick der Frau ruht auf der weissen Blüte. Carl Albert Loosli hat in seinem Generalkatalog zum Werk von Ferdinand Hodler dieses symbolistische Bild bezeichnet als „Was die Blumen sagen“.
Formal erinnert die stehende weibliche Figur an die zweite Gestalt von rechts der engelhaften Wesen im grossformatigen Gemälde „Der Auserwählte“, 1893/94 (Depositum der Gottfried Keller-Stiftung, Kunstmuseum Bern). Dort stehen sechs weibliche Gestalten mit weissen Flügeln teilweise mit Blumen in den Händen im Halbkreis um einen vor ihnen am Boden knienden, nackten Knaben – bei dem es sich um Hector handelt, den Sohn des Malers. Bei beiden Arbeiten hat Ferdinand Hodler die Beziehung des Menschen zur Natur bzw. der Mensch und die Natur als Thema verarbeitet.

The female figure dressed in a blue and a white cape is holding a long-stemmed flower in her right hand. The woman’s inward looking gaze rests on the white blossom. In his catalogue raisonné on the work of Ferdinand Hodler, Carl Albert Loosli lists this symbolist painting as “What the Flowers Say”.
From a formal perspective, the standing woman brings to mind the figure second to the right of the group of angelic beings in the large painting “The Chosen One”, 1893/94 (deposited at the Gottfried-Keller Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern). In that painting, six female figures with white wings stand in a semicircle around a naked boy kneeling on the floor, some of them holding flowers in their hands. The naked boy is Hector, the son of the artist. In both “The Chosen One” and “What the Flowers Say”, Ferdinand Hodler addresses the theme of the relationship between man and nature

Dieses Werk ist im Schweizerischen Institut für Kunstwissenschaft SIK-ISEA unter der Archivnummer 37683 inventarisiert.