KOLLER VIEW 4/22

14 Preview of the Swiss Art auction on 2 December 2022 1 Félix Vallotton (1865–1925). Femme nue agenouillée devant un canapé rouge. 1915. Oil on canvas. 81.5 × 100.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 500 000/700 000 2 Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918). Portrait of Giulia Leonardi. 1910/11. Oil on canvas. 45 × 50.8 cm. Estimate: CHF 300 000/500 000 3 Detail: Cuno Amiet (1868–1961). The truth. 1913. Oil on canvas. 103 × 114 cm. Estimate: CHF 800 000/1 200 000 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION SWISS ART Laura Koller lkoller@kollerauctions.com ONLINE CATALOGUES www.kollerauctions.com 1 2 The nude, between the ideal and reality The depiction of the unclothed human body dates to the earliest beginnings of artistic expression, and scarcely any other genre triggers such strong emotions. While in earlier centuries the ideal nude primarily reflected the taste of the times, today the body itself also serves as an artistic medium. Me- dieval painting knew nudity only as an iconographic means to depict religious themes. It was emblem- atic of the inadequacy and mortality of the human being. In Antiquity, and again from the Renaissance onwards, aesthetics and sensuality assumed a cen- tral role. From then on, the oscillating play between showing and concealing, convention and provocation, which in the Baroque and Rococo periods erupted into a previously unheard-of permissiveness, became the norm. The 19 th century opened the genre of nude painting to experiments with light, colour and contrasts. Gustave Courbet’s ‘L‘Origine du Monde’ from 1866 became a key work and a scan- dal because the artist did not show an entire body, instead inviting view- ers to look between the subject’s thighs, directly confronting them with the essence of female sexuality. The force of Cuno Amiet’s (1868– 1961) seated nude ‘The Truth’ comes from the contrast of the figure against an orange-red back- ground and from the clear gaze of the sitter (ill. 3). In the body’s contours – complementary to the background – various shades of blue and green are concentrated, making the nude shimmer in an oth- erworldly manner. The painting was created as part of a series of allegories to decorate the loggia of the newly built Kunsthaus Zurich. Amiet has created a painting that in its perfected form is reminiscent of Buddhist deity figures and strives to be a timeless representation of truth. The naked body appears here as a metaphor of aletheia , the ‘unconcealed’, i.e., pure truth. Portraits of Giulia Leonardi occupy a large space in the work of Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918), and they are among his most beautiful and sensuous figure paintings. In this work, Hodler shows his model in profile, which emphasises her luxuriant black hair (ill. 2). The head turned to the side and the oblique torso lend the figure dynamism and an extroverted character. In contrast, ‘Femme nue’ by Felix Vallotton (1865– 1925) is completely absorbed, the subject’s head resting on a red sofa (ill. 1). As so often in Vallotton’s work, the setting is spartan and mysterious. It is up to the viewer to decode the scene.