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Ferdinand Hodler

Born: Bern, 14 March 1853
Died: Geneva, 19 May 1918
Nationality: Swiss
Background: 

peasant family; carpenter father, mother and two brothers died of tuberculosis by 1867

Studies: 

with Ferdinand Sommer; Collège de Genève; with Barthélemy Menn at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva

Career: 

1886 – submits Surprised by the Storm (Oskar Reinhart Foundation, Winterthur) to the Concours Diday in Geneva

1892 – exhibits Night at the Salon Rose + Croix (Paris)

1896 – receives commission for 26 male figures for Schweizerische Landesausstellung (Swiss Regional Exhibition) in Geneva

1897 – commissioned to paint fresco for Weapons Room of the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, (completed in 1900)

1907 – executes mural Departure of the Jena Students for the Napoleonic Wars (1813) for Jena  University (in situ)

1909 – designs banknotes for the Swiss National Bank

1911 – commission to decorate Assembly Rooms of Hannover city hall

1914 – signs protest against bombardment of Reims Cathedral

Travels

Madrid (1878-79)

Important Artworks: 

Self-Portrait: the Student, 1874 (Kunsthaus, Zurich)

Prayer, 1882 (private collection)

Tired of Living, 1892 (Neue Pinokothek, Munich)

Autumn Evening, 1892-93 (Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, Neuchatel)

The Chosen One, 1893-94 (Kunstmuseum, Bern)

William Tell, 1896-97 (Kunstmuseum, Solothurn)

Day, c. 1900 (Kunstmuseum, Luzern)

Spring, 1901 (Museum Folkwang, Essen)

The Woodcutter, 1910 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)