MASP

Ferdinand Hodler was an important representative of the fin de siècle sensitivity, characterized mainly by the appearance of movements related with symbolism in different European countries. If, from 1875 to 1890, this Swiss artist had a penchant towards painting artisans and landscapes, he would later represent allegoric scenes recalling the depths of the unconscious. During the first decade of the 20th century, Hodler gained international visibility and received several commissions of public works, among frescoes and murals of large scale representing historical scenes. One of these works was a commission of the Swiss National Bank to create illustrations about the work on the countryside, to be stamped on the new bills of 50 and 100 francs. The composition of The Lumberman was conceived for the 50 francs notes. However, unsatisfied with the effect caused by the reduction of scale, the artist decided not to use it for the bank notes. Once he exposed it, the success was immediate, leading him to make different versions, that can be found at Musée d’Orsay, in Paris, and at MASP, among others. In both cases, the muscular tension in the culminating effort portrayed stresses the expressive potency of the pose. The figure, in a quite strong-willed movement set out to blow a stroke with the hatchet, stands out of the neutral background, adding a monumental aspect and a heroic dignity to this representation of the worker.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2017

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In October 1908, Hodler received from the Banque Nationale Suisse a commission to create two new notes of paper money. The proposed theme for the design, labor in Switzerland, was dear to the designer because of his life history. Hodler rendered it in form of a woodcutter for the reverse side of the 50-swiss franc note and a reaper, for the 10-swiss franc note. Loosli (1924) mentions six paintings with the same subject matter, three of which were dated 1910 and one, 1913. During a more in-depth research, Camesasca (1988, p. 202) discovered the existence of no less than twenty oil versions of The Woodcutter, ranging from small-format works such as the one in the Masp Collection, to medium-sized paintings (about 130 x 100 cm) and monumental canvases such as the great painting conserved at the Bern Museum (263 x 211 cm). Nine of these twenty works are dated 1910. Evidently, the market must have played an important role in the proliferation of these versions (there are more than fifteen versions of Reapers). Camesasca observed the growing confidence and stylization of the drawing along the production of these variations, in a dynamic process that allows the establishment of an internal chronological order for the series. “With regard to the version of The Woodcutter at Masp, its rendition characterized by abundant details allows us to situate it in the first stage of the series”, he wrote. “Given the vigorous gesture, The Woodcutter ranks among the most significant representations of human labor in European painting”. Perhaps even more than any other subject matter, the woodcutter provides Hodler with an image of physical energy that emanates from his drawing.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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