The Black Lutschina 1905

Ferdinand Hodler made this landscape, The Black Lutschina, using oil on canvas. It's a landscape painting dominated by blues and greens, capturing a scene of a river flowing through a forest, with mountains in the distance. The way Hodler layers paint is interesting. You can almost feel him building up the scene stroke by stroke, decision by decision. I imagine him outside, trying to get the essence of the scene. The colours aren’t blended smoothly, and the brushstrokes are really visible. It’s like he’s saying, "Here’s how I saw it; here's how it felt." There's a push and pull between the impression of reality and the flatness of the painted surface. I feel a kinship with Hodler, being out there in nature, thinking about the process of trying to capture something so fleeting and complex. It is also a bit like Cézanne's landscapes, where the act of seeing and painting becomes this whole philosophical journey. This piece feels like Hodler having a conversation across time with other artists.