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Lot 3029 - A197 Swiss Art - Friday, 02. July 2021, 02.00 PM

FERDINAND HODLER

(Bern 1853–1918 Geneva)
Lake Thun, seen from Breitlauenen. 1906.
Oil and oil crayon on canvas.
Signed and dated lower right: F. Hodler 1906.
103 × 89 cm.

Provenance:
- Collection of Ernst Berger, Langnau im Emmental, 1921.
- Collection of H. Berger, Zurich, until 1946.
- Swiss private collection, from 1955.

Exhibited:
- Bern 1921, Hodler-Gedächtnis-Ausstellung, Kunstmuseum Bern, 20.8.–23.10.1921, no. 395, as 'Thunersee, vom Wege zur Schynigen Platte, 1908'.
- Bern 1938, Ferdinand Hodler-Gedächtnisausstellung. Veranstaltet zur Ehrung des Meisters bei Anlass der zwanzigsten Wiederkehr seines Todestages, Kunstmuseum Bern, 19.5.–26.6.1938, no. 113, as 'Thunersee vom Weg zur Schynige Platte aus, 1908'.
- Bern 1953, Die Hauptmeister der Berner Malerei 1500–1900. Jubiläumsausstellung. Bern: 600 Jahre im Ewigen Bund der Eidgenossen 1353–1953, Kunstmuseum Bern, 29.5.–20.9.1953, no. 392, as 'Blick auf den Thunersee, vom Weg zur Schynigen Platte aus, 1906'.

Literature:
- Ferdinand Hodler: 'Über die Kunst' und 'Von der Farbe und dem Parallelismus', in: March, 7, issue 1, 2, 1913, p. 100 (with ill.), as 'Thunersee' (consolidation of both Hodler texts, which were published in der Liberté in 1897 and in Morgen in 1909 (Hodler 1897, Hodler 1909), with revised conclusion; translated by Ewald Bender).
- Johannès Widmer: Ferdinand Hodler, in: Pages d'art, May 1916, part 2, p. 51, with ill., as 'Lac de Thoune, 1906'.
- Carl Albert Loosli: Ferdinand Hodler, Zurich 1919–1920, 3 portfolios (companion volume: C. A. Loosli: Ferdinand Hodler), no. 95 (with ill.), as 'Thunersee (vom Weg zur Schynigen Platte), 1906'.
- Carl Albert Loosli: 1921–1924, vol. I, p. 150 (Thunersee vom Weg auf die Schynige Platte, 1906), vol. III, p. 65, as 'Thunersee auf dem Weg zur Schynigen Platte' 1906/1908, 127.
- Carl Albert Loosli :1921–1924 (general catalogue), no. 2085, as 'Thunersee auf dem Weg zur Schynigen Platte, 1906', no. 2086, as 'Thunersee auf dem Weg zur Schynigen Platte, 1908'.
- Werner Y. Müller: Ferdinand Hodler als Landschaftsmaler, Glarus 1940, p. 49, ill. 109, as 'Thunersee, vom Weg zur Schynigen Platte aus, 1908'.
- Werner Y. Müller: Die Kunst Ferdinand Hodlers. Gesamtdarstellung. Volume II. Reife und Spätwerk 1895–1918, Zurich 1941, p. 137, ill. 109, as 'Thunersee, vom Weg zur Schynigen Platte aus, 1908', 151, as 'Thunersee von Breitlauenen aus, 1908' 485.
- Werner Y. Müller: Landschaftskatalog, in: Werner Y. Müller, 1941, Zurich 1941, no. 368, as 'Thunersee (vom Weg zur Schynigen Platte), 1906'.
- Jura Brüschweiler: Ferdinand Hodler (Bern 1853–Geneva 1918). Chronologische Übersicht: Biographie, Werk, Rezensionen, in: Exh. cat. Ferdinand Hodler, Berlin/Paris/Zurich 1983, p. 139, as 'Thunersee, vom Weg zur Schynigen Platte aus, 1906'.
- Danielle Frimma Nathanson: Ferdinand Hodler's Landscape Paintings. The Bernese Oberland as Motif and Inspiration, pub. by the University of California, Riverside 1987, p. 222, with ill. 62.
- Paul Müller: Aspekte der Landschaft im Werk Ferdinand Hodlers, in: Exh. cat. Ferdinand Hodler. Eine symbolistische Vision, ed. by Katharina Schmidt in collaboration with László Baán and Matthias Frehner, Bern/Budapest 2008, p. 256, with ill. 2, as 'Thunersee von Breitlauenen aus, 1906'.
- Oskar Bätschmann and Paul Müller: Ferdinand Hodler. Catalogue raisonné der Gemälde, pub. by Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, vols. I-2, Die Landschaften, Zurich 2008, p. 299, no. 337 (with ill.).


This important painting depicts the view from the Breitlauenen Alp to the west over the Därliggrat ridge, revealing the Interlaken plain below with the Beatenberg on the opposite side of Lake Thun, which terminates with the peaks of the Niessen and the Stockhorn chain of mountains projecting as landmarks from the horizon line. After a theft, the painting was mounted on a new stretcher and excellently restored by the Swiss Institute for Art Research.

Unlike the many other motifs that Hodler often repeatedly captured in actual series, sometimes over the span of several years and creative periods, this view of Lake Thun from Breitlauenen is unique in Hodler's œuvre. A smaller version showing only the view of the lake, but without the pastures of the Breitlauenen Alp, is located in the public collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Inv. G 1958.52, Max Geldner Bequest, 1958). From this same point of view, which Ferdinand Hodler selected during his stay at the Kurhaus Breitlauenen in the summer of 1906, Lake Brienz can also be seen to the northeast, a view the artist painted in two versions in the same year and from the same location.


CHF 800 000 / 1 200 000 | (€ 824 740 / 1 237 110)

Sold for CHF 1 143 800 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.