KOLLER VIEW 2/24

pre view. 02 5 Cuno Amiet and Ferdinand Hodler are represented by important paintings in our June Swiss Art auction. One, a portrait of Hodler painted by Amiet in 1898 employing key aspects of Swiss modernism, represents a signif- icant friendship between Swiss artists. It was created as a commission by Oscar Miller, director of the Biberist paper factory, one of the most influential Swiss art col- lectors of the time, who began to collect contemporary art in 1896. Hodler and Amiet met in 1893. The 40-year-old Hodler was already an established artist, while Amiet, aged 25, was still at the beginning of his career. Amiet admired Hodler’s work and drew inspiration from him, which led to a lively exchange between the two. In September 1897, Oscar Miller visited Cuno Amiet’s studio in Sol- othurn together with Hodler and the Bernese painter Fritz Widmann. Amiet then paid several visits to Hodler, who was working in a studio in Bern’s Zeughaus on the designs for his controversial frescoes destined for the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. A detail of the large-format work forms the background of the portrait. Amiet spent several evenings with Hodler to paint an initial version of the portrait. He later transferred the subject created on-site to a somewhat smaller format, the ‘official’ portrait. Miller acquired the second paint- ing, while the first remained with Amiet – at least for the time being. A few years later, Miller asked to exchange the official portrait for the version painted spontane- ously in Hodler’s studio. Both men would later sell their portraits of Hodler: Miller sold the initial version now on offer to Willy Russ-Young, and Amiet sold his ‘official’ version, which is now in the Solothurn Art Museum, to Gertrud Dübi-Müller. The two closely-related paintings are important documents in Swiss art history. Another remarkable work in the auction is Ferdinand Hodler’s ‘Lake Geneva with Jura’ from 1911, one of a se- ries of landscape paintings Hodler produced from 1908 onwards, that are striking for their formal reduction. In this medium-sized version, Hodler moves towards an increasingly abstract representation by using parallel areas of colour. The artist still distinguishes between the shore, the lake, the distant Jura mountains and the sky, but dispenses with a detailed elaboration of these horizontal elements. The result is a powerful yet calm pictorial world. 1 Cuno Amiet (1868–1961). Portrait of Ferdinand Hodler in front of his Marignano painting, 1st version. 1898. Tempera and oil on canvas. 76 × 52.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 250 000/400 000 Short film: Interview with Franz Müller, author of the catalogue raisonné For further information Swiss Art Laura Koller & Cyril Koller lkoller@kollerauctions.com Online Catalogues www.kollerauctions.com 2 Cuno Amiet (1868–1961). The rose bush. 1916. Oil on canvas. 46 × 38 cm. Estimate: CHF 70 000/110 000 3 Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918). Lake Geneva with the Jura mountains. Circa 1911. Oil on canvas. 45 × 71 cm. Estimate: CHF 1 600 000/2 400 000 Encounters: Amiet and Hodler Preview of the Swiss Art auction on 21 June 2024 3 2