FERDINAND HODLER
Heilige Stunde
c. 1907
Oil on canvas
197 x 117 x 2.5 cm

Ferdinand Hodler’s extraordinary ‘Heilige Stunde’ (c. 1907) is a key work from one of the artist’s most famous series. Other Heilige Stunde paintings can be found in major collections around the globe, including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the Kunsthaus Zürich, while a famous lithograph based on the series is also widely represented in museum collections.

The largest painting from the series still in private hands, ‘Heilige Stunde’ made its American debut at the seminal Armory Show in 1913. A pivotal moment in the history of modern art, the exhibition changed the trajectory of American art by showcasing the work of some of the most innovative and radical artists working in Europe. Tens of thousands of visitors came to see ‘Heilige Stunde’ alongside works by Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and other major artistic figures working at the turn of the century. Created at the height of Hodler’s success and fame, ‘Heilige Stunde’ exemplifies how the artist reimagined and combined the traditional genres of portraiture and landscape through his famous concept of parallelism, particularly his emphasis on symmetry and the rhythm of form.

In 1904, Hodler (1853 – 1918) presented his first iteration of ‘Heilige Stunde’ (1901) at the celebrated 19th Secession exhibition in Vienna. In stark contrast to his predecessors however, Hodler created a unique correspondence between his figures and the landscape that envelopes them. The two women mirror each other’s movements and pose, from their heads down to their feet, while the roses at the lower edge of the painting curve in a similar way to the folds of their loose dresses. Hodler argued that the repetitive forms, symmetry, and rhythm that characterise his mature paintings captured the universal order, harmony, and unity that were an inherent part of the world. As Holder explained: “I call parallelism any kind of repetition. When I feel most strongly the charm of things in nature, there is always an impression of unity. … When an important event is being celebrated, the people face and move in the same direction. These are parallels following each other. … The work of art will bring to light a new order inherent in things, and this will be: the idea of unity.”

The most prominent Swiss artist of the turn of the 20th century, Hodler revolutionised Swiss art. Hodler regarded his allegorical paintings, including ‘Heilige Stunde’, as his most important achievements. A consummate example of the artist’s formal experimentations and his exceptional skills as a colourist, the vibrant painting epitomises Hodler’s unique style and theory of art.