Kunsthalle Mannheim / Cem Yücetas
)Jugendstil-Bau > Ebene 1 > Galerie 13
Intro
In this painting, Hodler combines two themes characteristic of his entire oeuvre: the landscape and the human form. Its very title imbues the work with a symbolic quality: »The Song from Afar« can refer to both the landscape, in which the song resounds, and the young woman in the green dress, transforming her into the embodiment of the song itself. In an emotionally charged pose—her right leg stretched forward, her hands pointing to her heart and her head slightly tilted—she looks at us directly.
Her gaze appears both challenging and distant, whereas her green dress establishes a connection to the landscape. While it is nature itself that conveys the mood in Hodler’s famous images of deserted Swiss mountain landscapes, in this Symbolist picture it is the figure that performs a similar function. Here, Hodler offers us an expressive rendering of her emotional world—one that fluctuates between longing, hope, and desire.
Kunsthalle Mannheim
Transkription
“There is a newer painting of a woman in a green dress on a meadow full of blue and violet flowers; a bit of blue sky is peeping between the white clouds – all this together forms a pastoral symphony of breathtaking beauty.”
That was an assessment by a contemporary of Ferdinand Hodler describing the painting in front of us.
Another contemporary even whole-heartedly cheers:
„Every gesture breathes, every fold preaches heroic devotion. This powerfully striding figure in her royal-green, radiant sheath will move every heart.“
Is it the – seeming – simplicity of this painting that touches the viewers at the beginning of the 20th century?
The artist, born in 1853 in Berne, achieves this effect by capturing the figure from a very low-lying perspective: in this way, the ground she stands upon descends, her frame becomes larger than life. The sky was originally painted blue, then white. It almost wholly surrounds her, giving her a supernatural appearance. This female figure is probably an image of Hodler’s second wife Berthe; he deliberately paints her in a very realistic manner, whereas meadow, sky, and flowers are merely weakly contoured areas without depth. Consequently, the figure steps out of its environment, towards the viewer. This is a very well-calculated effect indeed.
The hands resting upon her breasts could easily be taken as a gesture of confidence, of indomitability. But Hodler has used this gesture on other paintings in similar form, as an expression of inner turmoil. What is it that agitates this woman, with her head postured so inquiringly? The title of this 1906 painting does not say.
But how does the title fit the painting? Is this woman listening to a far-off song? Is she singing to herself? Does she perhaps represent the song? There is no definite answer to that.
![Signatur: u.re.: "1915 Ferd Hodler.": Beschriftung verso: in Bleistift u.re.: [unleserlich]](/sites/default/files/styles/700_breit/public/digitalisate/G2579_MOS_2018.jpg?itok=cM7of-t0 "Selbstbildnis")
