Lake Geneva from Chexbres 1905

Ferdinand Hodler made "Lake Geneva from Chexbres" with oil on canvas, and the painting really shows us how he saw the world around him. Look at how Hodler applies the paint. It's not about blending seamlessly; instead, each stroke feels deliberate. The colors are layered, giving the lake a sense of depth. The clouds above and below have these hard edges, they almost feel like a surreal halo that matches the curve of the lake. There's something both very real and very stylized here. It makes me think about how we make meaning through process, how one step follows another, and how the medium dictates the message as much as the subject does. Hodler wasn't trying to trick us into thinking we're looking at a real lake, but he wanted us to feel the essence of it. It reminds me of the work of Gustav Klimt, who was a contemporary of Hodler, in the way both artists used patterns and abstracted forms to convey deeper emotional and psychological states. It is a reminder that art isn't about imitation. It's about interpretation.