{"id":909,"date":"2021-08-24T15:55:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hodler2021.ch\/hodlers-holzfaeller\/hodler\/"},"modified":"2022-08-25T16:22:14","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T14:22:14","slug":"hodler","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hodler2021.ch\/en\/hodlers-holzfaeller\/hodler\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferdinand Hodler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Biography\n<\/h2>\n\n
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Ferdinand Hodler\u2019s went almost from rags to riches: the boy from poor circumstances becomes a famous artist thanks to talent and will-power.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Childhood and Youth<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Hodler was born in Berne in 1853. His childhood was overshadowed by poverty and death. His father died young of consumption, as did many of his siblings. When his mother re-married, the family moved to the Bernese Oberland. By the age of 14, Hodler was an orphan.

As a young boy he worked for his step-father, Gottlieb Sch\u00fcpbach, a painter and decorator with his own workshop. Then he began an apprenticeship with Ferdinand Sommer, who sold landscape paintings, so-called veduta, as souvenirs to tourists. In his workshop, several employees copied landscapes by famous Swiss masters. In this way Hodler got to know works by the Swiss romande painters Fran\u00e7ois Diday und Alexandre Calame, among others. When a commission went wrong, Hodler gave up his apprenticeship and moved to his uncle to Langenthal, where he continued doing what he had learned, painting souvenir landscapes on card, which he then began to sign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Off to Geneva <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In late 1871 Hodler\u2019s interest in painting drew him to Geneva, an art city at the time. While he was sketching in Mus\u00e9e Rath, the Genevan artist and teacher Barth\u00e9lemy Menn approached him and subsequently admitted him to his class and promoted him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodler attended lectures and satisfied his thirst for education. Geneva offered various possibilities for exhibitions. In 1874 Hodler won First Prize in the Concours Calame<\/em> competition. Up until 1895 Hodler entered paintings regularly in both the Concours Calame<\/em> and the Concours Diday<\/em>. The prize money was a vital source of income for him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ferdinand Hodler, Self-Portrait (The Student),<\/em> 1874, oil on canvas, 113 \u00d7 73 cm, Kunsthaus Z\u00fcrich <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hodler and the Bourbaki-Panorama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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