(Bern 1853-1918 Geneva)

Composition study for ‘The Battle of Morat’. 1915.

Pen and sepia ink on tracing paper, laid on board.

79.5 × 109 cm (visible measurements).

Provenance:
- Estate of Berthe Hodler, Geneva 1958 (estate stamp).
- Vente B. Hodler. 13.4.1958, Lot 42.
- Collection of Karl Steiner.
- Swiss private collection.

Literature:
- Exh. cat. Hodler, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1991, ed. by Jura Brüschweiler, p. 122, 130, ill. 12.
- Jura Brüschweiler and Rudolf Koella: Ferdinand Hodler. Sammlung Steiner, Zurich 1997, p. 110 f., 246, plate 41.

The present sheet is an early composition drawing for ‘The Battle of Morat’, which Ferdinand Hodler was intensively preparing for the east wall of the armoury hall in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich from 1915 until his illness in 1917. The composition differs from later studies in the movement of the front soldiers and the fleeing horses and riders in the upper register and is closely related to the painting in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva (cat. Rais. 1680), which the artist inscribed “1. Esquisse. 1915”.