Thanks to
baroncomo ;

A lot of very strange and diverse influences appear when looking at Hodler's work : the strange, somehow flat rendering of the shades of flesh reminds me of Blake - but apparently could also have to do with an interest in expressionism, alongside clearly a morbid influence to me reminiscent of Velazquez. But then again all baroque painter looks alike to my uneducated eye. Unsurprisingly for someone labelled somewhere between symbollist and art nouveau, the representation, and poses of the character have a clear pre-raphaelite influence.

The angular shapes of the bodies, to me looks a bit like Schiele, somehow twist those pre-raphaelites poses into something a bit more tortured, where the religious ecstasy can also echo pain or lust, into something more like Klimmt. In this particular painting his use of contrasting colours of flats for fabrics and of unusual canvas formats seems to have something of the Secession.

"Le dessin et la couleur sont mes seuls moyens d'expression. La signification intime de mes œuvres est représentée directement par la ligne, la composition et la couleur, il n'y a rien à deviner, il n'y a qu'à voir. Je ne suis ni allégoriste, ni danseur de cordes, ni symboliste car mes œuvres ne représentent rien de surnaturel, d'invisible, qu'il faille expliquer ; ce n'est que la vérité telle que je la vois. Je suis un synthétiste." (Loosli, 1921-1924, repris in Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918))
In this quote he basically state that he isnt an allegorist nor a symbollist but a synthetist, as he express the reality as he sees it. He is definitely a synthetist, but to me more because he make the synthesis of many movements, styles and painters of his time than because of his early concern with realism.

A lot of very strange and diverse influences appear when looking at Hodler's work : the strange, somehow flat rendering of the shades of flesh reminds me of Blake - but apparently could also have to do with an interest in expressionism, alongside clearly a morbid influence to me reminiscent of Velazquez. But then again all baroque painter looks alike to my uneducated eye. Unsurprisingly for someone labelled somewhere between symbollist and art nouveau, the representation, and poses of the character have a clear pre-raphaelite influence.

The angular shapes of the bodies, to me looks a bit like Schiele, somehow twist those pre-raphaelites poses into something a bit more tortured, where the religious ecstasy can also echo pain or lust, into something more like Klimmt. In this particular painting his use of contrasting colours of flats for fabrics and of unusual canvas formats seems to have something of the Secession.
"Le dessin et la couleur sont mes seuls moyens d'expression. La signification intime de mes œuvres est représentée directement par la ligne, la composition et la couleur, il n'y a rien à deviner, il n'y a qu'à voir. Je ne suis ni allégoriste, ni danseur de cordes, ni symboliste car mes œuvres ne représentent rien de surnaturel, d'invisible, qu'il faille expliquer ; ce n'est que la vérité telle que je la vois. Je suis un synthétiste." (Loosli, 1921-1924, repris in Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918))
In this quote he basically state that he isnt an allegorist nor a symbollist but a synthetist, as he express the reality as he sees it. He is definitely a synthetist, but to me more because he make the synthesis of many movements, styles and painters of his time than because of his early concern with realism.
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