The Lake Geneva from Lausanne 1912

Ferdinand Hodler created this oil painting of Lake Geneva from Lausanne. The sky and water meet in a hazy horizontal band. It is a calm scene with a gentle palette of greens, blues, and browns. I wonder what it was like for Hodler standing before this view? You can see he's interested in the way the land meets the water, and the way the water meets the sky. The paint application is flat, almost like a watercolor. Hodler’s use of color is quite subtle with soft tonal shifts. The greens and browns of the foreground suggest the feel of the grass and trees. Hodler was part of the Symbolist movement, and his landscapes often convey a sense of harmony and order, similar to the work of artists like Edvard Munch and Gustav Klimt. This painting seems to be part of an ongoing conversation about the relationship between humans and nature, reflecting the creative exchange between artists across time.