Ferdinand Hodler was considered during his lifetime as a leading artist in the Modernist movement. Born in Berne in 1853, he lived in Geneva until his death in 1918, but this was a European career marked by both success and scandal. He was a member of the great Secessions and saw his work acclaimed in Vienna, Berlin and Munich. His triumph in Paris came in 1891 when his seminal painting Night (Berne, Kunstmuseum), was banned by the city of Geneva for reasons of obscenity. But at the same time, he was receiving major public commissions from Zürich, Geneva, Iena and Frankfurt. These produced many opportunities for the artist to indulge his taste for simplified, monumental or decorative paintings. Holdler is also an uncompromising portrait painter and unequalled landscape painter. 
At the end of the nineteenth century Hodler was one of the leading Symbolist painters. His creative force, his taste for decoration and his simplified painting are reminiscent of Rodin and Puvis de Chavannes, the undisputed masters with whom he is often compared. However, Hodler remains relatively unknown in France, whereas in Switzerland he is considered their great painter, and in Germany and Austria he is regarded as one of the founders of modern art.
This exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay offers a real opportunity to rediscover Hodler, with eighty paintings, many on show in France for the first time, and about thirty paintings and photographs.
Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918)
13 November 2007 - 3 February 2008
Musée d'Orsay
www.musee-orsay.fr
62, rue de Lille
75343 Paris Cedex 07
Information +33 (0)1 40 49 48 14
Musée d'Orsay entrance: 1, rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris.
9.30am to 6pm
9.30am to 9.45pm on Thursdays
Closed on mondays
Full rate: € 7.50
Concessions: € 5.50 €
Under 18s and members: free
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