Ferdinand Hodler: Parallelism

Ferdinand Hodler - Night (Die Nacht) - 1889-1890 - Oil on canvas - Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. (click photo for larger image)Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the nineteenth century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of symbolism he called “Parallelism” - which emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society.

The work featured here, Night, marks Holdler’s turn toward symbolist imagery. It depicts several recumbent figures, all of them relaxed in sleep except for an agitated man who is menaced by a figure shrouded in black, which Hodler intended as a symbol of death.

Feininger: Art + Science + Technology

Lyonel Feininger - Sunset - 1930 - oil on canvas - 47.94 x 77.79 cm (18 7/8 x 30 5/8 in.) - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (click photo for larger image)German-American painter Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) ( ) was a leading exponent of Expressionism—and also very much embraced the Cubist style. Feininger’s paintings and teaching activities at the Bauhaus—a German school of design, architecture and applied arts—brought a new compositional discipline and lyrical use of color into German Expressionism. 

Kirchner’s “Bern with Belltower”

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Bern with Belltower, 1935, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 80.65 cm (27.75 x 31.75 in) Minneapolis Institute of ArtsThe charming setting as subject matter was a rarity for German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938). In 1917, Kirchner left Germany for Switzerland where he settled in an alpine house at Davos. He became a new influence in the Swiss art world, which had been relatively untouched by Expressionism. At an age when most artists begin to settle and mellow, Kirchner found new vigor in the idolatry of Swiss students. The peaceful beauty and vast expanse of the high Alps, as well as the political stability of Switzerland, must also have contributed to the new brightness and precision evident in Bern. This new style, Kirchner's last period, began in 1925. Nothing of his expressive power is lost in the grandeur, gaiety and light.

George Hendrik Breitner: Working Class Neighborhoods

George Hendrik Breitner - Bridge over the Singel near Paleisstraat in Amsterdam - c. 1897 - Oil on canvas, 100 x 152 cm - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (click photo for larger image)George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923)  was a Dutch painter and photographer. He trained as a painter and draughtsman at the academy in The Hague from 1875 to 1877. In the early 1880s, he and Vincent van Gogh painted the residents of the working class neighborhoods of The Hague and in the province of Drenthe. Both artists recorded the vitality of city life in their sketchbooks. Breitner consciously chose these themes and motifs: he wanted to paint people going about their daily lives, and on his trips through the towns and docks he was constantly in search of motifs and impressions that he could use in his paintings. The painting featured here depicts a cold dark day in Amsterdam in winter. The setting is the bridge, covered by snow over the Singel in Amsterdam.

Paul Klee: “Color and I are One”

Paul Klee - Föhn in Marc's Garden - 1915 - watercolour on paper mounted on cardboard - Height: 20 cm (7.87 in.), Width: 15 cm (5.91 in.) - Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus - Munich (click photo for larger image)Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a Swiss-born painter and graphic artist whose personal, often gently humorous works are replete with allusions to dreams, music, and poetry. His art is difficult to classify. Art created by non-industrial cultures, surrealism, cubism, and children's art are all blended into Klee’s small-scale, delicate paintings, watercolors, and drawings—which number over 7000. Klee grew up in a musical family and was himself a violinist. After much hesitation, however, he chose to study art, and attended the Munich Academy in 1900. Klee later toured Italy (1901-02), responding enthusiastically to Early Christian and Byzantine art. A turning point in Klee's career came on a visit he made to Tunisia in 1914. He was so overwhelmed by the intense light there that he wrote, “Color has taken possession of me. No longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever. That is the significance of this blessed moment. Color and I are one. I am a painter.”