Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc before sunrise 1918

Here is Ferdinand Hodler’s painting, *Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc before Sunrise*. He’s working with oils, capturing the start of the day. I can imagine Hodler, before dawn, layering thin washes of blues and yellows to catch that liminal moment of half-light. See how the paint is scrubbed on in places, the mountains reduced to these dark, jagged silhouettes against the sun. I love the way the cool blues of the water meet the warm yellows of the sky. The paint is almost translucent, like looking at a Rothko. I wonder if he was trying to distill the landscape to its essence, a few simple forms and colors? Or maybe he was after something more elusive, like the feeling of being in that place, at that time. I can almost feel the chill in the air, the stillness of the water, the anticipation of the sun rising over the mountains. Painting is about seeing, but it’s also about feeling, and memory, and being present in the world. It makes you think, how has painting helped us think about the world around us and our place in it?