Hodler : Un modèle pour l'art suisse

Exhibition at the Musée d'art de Pully, 14 February - 25 May 2025 ;
then at the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel, 22 June - 12 October 2025

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) was recognised far beyond national borders. The power of his work and his imposing personality made him a figure to be reckoned with, so much so that when he died in 1918, critics were quick to assert that without Hodler there would be no Swiss art. For all the artists of his generation, and those that followed, he was either a model or a repellent.

For the first time, this exhibition catalogue looks not at Hodler's followers, of whom there were many, but at how the artists of his time appropriated some of his precepts and sought to develop their own originality. It brings together more than 80 works by Hodler, as well as by well-known artists such as Cuno Amiet, Alice Bailly, Giovanni Giacometti and Félix Vallotton, and lesser-known painters such as Eduard Boss, Raymond Buchs, Casimir Reymond and Anna Haller. The book provides an overview of how Ferdinand Hodler was received by the artists of his time, as well as a panorama of modern Swiss art.