‘The Jungfrau Massif from Mürren’ ranks among the most important alpine landscapes from Ferdinand Hodler’s late oeuvre. Through a slight shift in viewpoint and a deliberately simplified pictorial structure, Hodler achieves a clear and monumental frontal view. The rock formations are arranged in a rigorously balanced composition, while narrative details recede into the background. Instead, rhythm, repetition and symmetry determine the structure of the painting and constitute central elements of Hodler’s theory of parallelism. The sharp separation between foreground and background causes the mountain to almost resemble a human figure. In this way, the landscape becomes a kind of portrait of the mountain itself.

With ‘In the Garden’ of 1912, Cuno Amiet created one of the most striking works of his Brücke period. The painting reveals his mature and unmistakable conception of colour, in which the influences of international modernism become apparent. It was created during a period of great artistic confidence and marks a high point in his oeuvre. Depicted is Anna Amiet-Luder in the garden at Oschwand. At first glance, the scene appears calm and intimate. The introspective figure is embedded within dense vegetation, lending the work a deeply personal character. Yet this tranquillity is deceptive, for through this painterly approach the garden becomes an expressive interplay of colours and planes. Nature is not merely represented, but artistically reimagined.