Koller Review 2024

2 A Ferdinand Hodler year at Koller As far as our Swiss Art auctions in 2024 are concerned, it could well be called the year of Ferdinand Hodler. Two of his rare late views of Lake Geneva came up for auction, as did a famous portrait that Cuno Amiet painted of his friend and role model. In the summer of 1917, the 65-year-old Hodler was at the height of his career and was considered the quintessential Swiss artist. It had been half a century since Hodler, who came from a poor background, began an apprenticeship under the ‘souvenir painter’ Ferdinand Sommer. In the decades that followed, Hodler set new standards with his mon- umental murals, as well as his portraits and landscapes. His works were soon represented in numerous museums and important private collections. The painter no longer had to worry about money, so towards the end of his life, Hodler decided to no longer accept commissions and to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting. Be- tween November 1917 and his death in May 1918, he created a series of land- scapes showing the same view of Lake Geneva at different times of day. These final works are among the painter’s most important legacies. The view ‘Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc’, auctioned in our rooms on 29 No- vember 2024, is part of that series and, at CHF 7.4 million, realised one of the highest auction prices ever for a work by Hodler. The owner of the painting was convinced to consign it to Koller by the success of a Hodler work in the pre- vious auction in June, in which a smaller, equally modern view of Lake Geneva, from the opposite shore towards the Jura, sold for the sensational price of CHF 5.1 million. In the same auction, we also offered a well-known and art-his- Cuno Amiet. Portrait of Ferdinand Hodler in front of his Marignano painting. 1898. Tempera and oil on canvas. 76 × 52.5 cm. Sold for CHF 1.3 million