Sunset on Lake Geneva from the Caux 1917

Editor: We're looking at Ferdinand Hodler's "Sunset on Lake Geneva from the Caux," painted in 1917. It's an oil painting, and I'm struck by how intensely yellow it is. Almost overwhelmingly so! The bands of color feel very deliberate. What do you see in this piece, particularly regarding the historical context? Curator: Beyond the obvious beauty, I see a painting steeped in a specific socio-political moment. Hodler created this work near the end of his life, amidst the turmoil of World War I. Switzerland, though neutral, was not untouched by the conflict. I think the intense yellow – a colour often associated with anxiety and unease in Expressionism – and the almost vibrating horizontal lines, speaks to a world on edge. What do you make of the repetitive nature of these horizontal bands? Editor: I guess I see it as a calming influence, but maybe it is more like forced order? What's really interesting is that those lines also visually flatten the scene. It almost feels less like a traditional landscape and more like an abstraction. Curator: Exactly! The simplification is key. Hodler was interested in communicating deeper, almost spiritual truths about the landscape. Given his well-documented struggle with personal grief and the anxieties of the era, it’s very plausible that the painting can also be interpreted through a psychological lens. A lens perhaps coloured by gendered expectations of stoicism and grief. Don't you agree the flattened picture plane mirrors the flattening experience of overwhelming grief? Editor: That makes sense! I hadn’t really thought about how personal events might influence his choices. Curator: Art, and especially landscape painting, has never existed outside these powerful social forces. Editor: It really changes my perspective on what I thought was simply a pretty landscape painting. Curator: Mine, too! This dialogue just proves that the social history is inseparably tied to personal history, just like the visual experience!