by Alexandra Tuschka
A blue mountain rises triangularly into the picture space. Two white, unnaturally ordered cloud bands set horizontal accents. At the lower edge we also find green and yellow areas in the grass strip.
The mountain is staged monumentally. The restless eye only comes to rest at the summit. What relationship do we have to it? Holder combines in this picture influences of Pointilism , since his surfaces also consist of individual dots of color. The name is not quite appropriate, however, since we find here predominantly rectangular surfaces. These are, however, less strictly implemented than usual but rather with free brushstroke transferred to the canvas. This implies a strong expression of color and form. Influences of Seurat and Gauguin are clearly recognizable in Hodler's work.
The artist himself believed that nature should be recognized as a flat surface, which is transferred by the artist into an equally flat medium. This causes the shallow depth space that we so often find in Holder's paintings.
Ferdinand Hodler - Schynige Platte
Oil on canvas, 1909, Unknown in private ownership
