(Bern 1853-1918 Geneva)

A three-figure study for the ‘The Battle of Näfels’. 1897.

Pencil on wove paper.

Monogrammed lower right: F.H.

24.5 × 26.5 cm (visible dimensions).

Provenance:
- Collection of Berta Wicke, Zurich, 1912 acquired from the artist by her father.
- Collection of Arthur Stoll, Arlesheim, until 1972.
- Auktion Kornfeld and Klipstein, Kunstwerke aus der Sammlung Arthur Stoll, Bern 18.11.1972, Lot 100.
- Collection of Karl Steiner, Zurich.
- Swiss private collection.

Literature:
- Marcel Fischer: Sammlung Arthur Stoll. Skulpturen und Gemälde des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, pub. by Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zurich 1961, no. 363 (with ill.).
- Hansjakob Diggelmann: Die Werke Ferdinand Hodlers in der Sammlung Arthur Stoll, in: Brugger Neujahrsblätter 1972, p. 131, cat. no. 42.
- Exh. cat. Hodler, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny 1991, ed. by Jura Brüschweiler, p. 102, ill. 9.
- Jura Brüschweiler and Rudolf Koella: Ferdinand Hodler. Sammlung Steiner, Zurich 1997, p. 110 f., 241, plate 20.

This drawing is a preparatory study for the composition ‘The Battle of Näfels’, which Ferdinand Hodler submitted for the competition for the mosaics on the facade of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich in 1897. It already depicts the group of the three fighting warriors very accurately as they appear in the tempera on paper version (Kunstmuseum Basel; cat. rais. 1282).