Enchanted Boy 1909

Ferdinand Hodler painted this portrait of an unknown boy, probably in oil on canvas, but when? It’s got this fascinating, chalky surface. Hodler’s not hiding the paint. You can see every brushstroke, like he’s letting us in on the secret. There’s a casualness, an ease to the application that I really enjoy. Look at the way the brown of his skin is painted right over the top of the white garment, but then compare this to the green paint that sits on top of the surrounding off-white space. And how the blue, it looks like little berries, floats behind him in the picture space. It creates this layering, this sense of depth that’s really subtle but effective. Hodler is showing how a picture can be built up with such simple methods. It reminds me of a Vuillard, who also had that knack for capturing the quiet intensity of everyday moments. In both artists, there’s this understanding that art is not about perfect representation but embracing the messy, beautiful ambiguity of life.