Ferdinand Hodler. Ferdinand Hodler was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the nineteenth century.His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style.
Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism which he called parallelism. Hodler was born in Bern, the eldest of six children.
His father, Jean Hodler, made a meager living as a carpenter; his mother, Marguerite, was from a peasant family. By the time Hodler was eight years old, he had lost his father and two younger brothers to tuberculosis.
His mother remarried, to a decorative painter named Gottlieb Schüpach who had five children from a previous marriage. The birth of additional children brought the size of Hodler's family to thirteen.
The family's finances were poor, and the nine-year-old Hodler was put to work assisting his stepfather in painting signs and other commercial projects. After the death of his mother from tuberculosis in 1867, Hodler was sent to Thun to apprentice with a local painter, Ferdinand Sommer. From Sommer, Hodler learned the craft of painting conventional Alpine landscapes, typically copied from prints, which he sold in shops and to tourists. In 1871, at the age of 18, Hodler travelled on foot to Geneva to start his career as a painter. He attended science lectures at the Collège de Genève, and in the museum there he copied paintings by Alexandre Calame. In 1873 he became a student
Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism which he called parallelism. Hodler was born in Bern, the eldest of six children.
His father, Jean Hodler, made a meager living as a carpenter; his mother, Marguerite, was from a peasant family. By the time Hodler was eight years old, he had lost his father and two younger brothers to tuberculosis.
His mother remarried, to a decorative painter named Gottlieb Schüpach who had five children from a previous marriage. The birth of additional children brought the size of Hodler's family to thirteen.
The family's finances were poor, and the nine-year-old Hodler was put to work assisting his stepfather in painting signs and other commercial projects. After the death of his mother from tuberculosis in 1867, Hodler was sent to Thun to apprentice with a local painter, Ferdinand Sommer. From Sommer, Hodler learned the craft of painting conventional Alpine landscapes, typically copied from prints, which he sold in shops and to tourists. In 1871, at the age of 18, Hodler travelled on foot to Geneva to start his career as a painter. He attended science lectures at the Collège de Genève, and in the museum there he copied paintings by Alexandre Calame. In 1873 he became a student
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