View of Lake Leman from Chexbres 1905

Ferdinand Hodler made this painting of Lake Leman from Chexbres, in Switzerland, with oil on canvas. The first thing I notice is that the clouds are stacked like plates, or pancakes, in the sky. I wonder if Hodler saw the landscape as an arrangement of forms. Did he start with the clouds, and then repeat their shapes down the picture plane? The color palette seems to be built from a narrow range of blues and yellows with very little green. And look at the way Hodler applied the paint in short, parallel strokes. I can imagine him standing there, methodically building up the image one stroke at a time. Did his process become a meditation? It reminds me of Cezanne's landscapes, with their emphasis on structure and form. Artists are always in conversation with each other, building on the ideas of those who came before. Painting is this ongoing exchange of ideas, inspiring new ways of seeing and being in the world.