FERDINAND HODLER (1853-1918)
The Stockhorn (2,190 m - 7, 185ft)
Switzerland
In Thurnersee mit Storlkhornette im Winter, 1912/1913, Oil on canvas, 63 x 85 cm, Private Collection ( by Sotheby's)
About the painting
Between November 1912 and May 1913 Ferdinand Hodler spent several times at Lake Thun, where he visited his girlfriend Valentine Godé-Darel, who was in Hilterfingen for recreation. On the occasion of his stays, Hodler painted several views of the snow-covered Stockhorn chain. As location, he chose the immediate vicinity of Oberhofen on the northern shore of Lake Thun. He probably executed some of the paintings on site, but he probably painted some more later in his Geneva studio. The area around Lake Thun was familiar to Hodler since his youth.
The half-hour walk from Steffisburg to Thun, which he completed during his apprenticeship with Ferdinand Sommer's Vedutenwerkstatt (1867-1871), showed him the magnificent mountains around Lake Thun every day. He later told his biographer Carl Albert Loosli about his fascination for the Stockhorn chain. The Bernese Alps also played a crucial role in Hodler's artistic development. The painter chose the mountain for the first time as a central subject for his Calame competition picture "Un site alpestre", with which he won first prize in 1883.
Dr. Monika Brunner, in Catalog raisonné of paintings by Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss Institute for Art Research SIK-ISEA
The mountain
The Stockhorn (2,190 m - 7, 185ft) is the highest peak in the Stockhorn range. in the Bernese Oberland (Switzerland). The striking Stockhorn summit is immediately noticeable when you drive through the Gürbetal or the Aare valley towards the Bernese Oberland. Since it consists of an almost vertical rock plate, it appears wide or pointed depending on the angle.
The Voralpenkette is about 13 km long and separates the Simmental in the south of the Stockental in the north in OSO / NNW direction. It begins at Reutigen , where the Simme leaves their valley and separates the described chain from the Burgfluh, respectively from the sneeze. The first striking peak is the Simmenfluh (1,422 m), which shapes the region with its massive appearance. After the Simmenfluh, the ridge drops slightly again and soon turns into a broad ridge, the Alp Heiti. From Stockental a second ridge climbs up, overlooking the previous ridge and the Alp. The Nüschleten (1,987 m), the Lasenberg (2,019 m) and the Solhorn (2,017 m) are the three highest elevations on this ridge section to the Stockhorn, which then expires in the Straitligrat. To the north of the Stockhorn is the broad Walalpgrat (1,920 m), the beginning of the last ridge section of the Stockhorn chain.This is followed by the Möntschelenspitz (2,020 m ), the Hohmad (2,075 m), the Stubenfluh (2,004 m) and the Chrummenfadenfluh (2,074 m ). The latter is actually already part of the Gantrisch group , which is adjacent to the Stockhorn chain in the NNW.
In the Stockhorn area there are several climbing gardens for sport climbers. 120 routes in 12 sectors offer difficulty levels from 2 to 7 in compact limestone rocks around the summit and at the intermediate station.
In 1974, an extensive cave system was discovered in the area around the Oberstocken Alp.
The painter
Ferdinand Hodler is one of the best-known Swiss painters of the 19th century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism he called Parallelism.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from several genres including Symbolism and Art Nouveau. In 1890 he completed Night, a work that marked Hodler's turn toward symbolist imagery. It depicts several recumbent figures, all of them relaxed in sleep except for an agitated man who is menaced by a figure shrouded in black, which Hodler intended as a symbol of death. Hodler developed a style he called "Parallelism" that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society. In paintings such as The Chosen One, groupings of figures are symmetrically arranged in poses suggestive of ritual or dance.
Hodler painted number of large-scale historical paintings, often with patriotic themes. In 1897 he accepted a commission to paint a series of large frescoes for the Weapons Room of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum in Zurich. The compositions he proposed, including The Battle of Marignan which depicted a battle that the Swiss lost, were controversial for their imagery and style, and Hodler was not permitted to execute the frescoes until 1900.
Hodler's work in his final phase took on an expressionist aspect with strongly coloured and geometrical figures. Landscapes were pared down to essentials, sometimes consisting of a jagged wedge of land between water and sky
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