Ferdinand Hodler

Swiss painter. Born into a joiner's family in Bern, he lost his father at age 5 and his mother at age 14. He worked hard to study at the Geneva School of Fine Arts. Influenced by Corot and Courbet in his early years, he started out with a realistic approach, using familiar motifs such as artisans and craftsmen, as well as landscapes. Later, he gradually pursued clear and strict order in his paintings, and attracted attention with his masterpiece allegorical painting "Night" (1890, Bern Art Museum). His "principle of parallelism," which is based on the repetition of the same color form, can be said to be a kind of symbolism that seeks a type that transcends the individual. Other representative works include "Day" (1900, Bern Art Museum), which is a pair with "Night," and the mural "March of the Students of the University of Jena" (1908) at the University of Jena. He is considered a pioneer of Expressionism, having made the shift from realism to symbolism and from decoration to allegory.

[Taro Nomura]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

スイスの画家。ベルンの指物師の家に生まれ、5歳で父を、14歳で母を失い、苦学してジュネーブの美術学校に学ぶ。初期にはコローやクールベの影響を受け、職人や手工業者など身近な環境や風景をモチーフとする写実的な手法から出発した。のちしだいに画面に明晰(めいせき)で厳格な秩序を追求し、寓意(ぐうい)画の大作『夜』（1890・ベルン美術館）で注目された。同一の色彩形態の反復を骨子とする彼の「平行の原理」は、個を超えた類型を求める一種の象徴主義といえる。ほかに『夜』と対(つい)をなす『昼』（1900・ベルン美術館）、イエナ大学の壁画『イエナ大学生の行進』（1908）が代表作。写実から象徴へ、装飾から寓意への転換を果たした彼は表現主義の先駆と目される。

［野村太郎］

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