Hilly Landscape with Ravens, in the Bernese Oberland 1910

Curator: So, let's spend some time looking at Ferdinand Hodler's "Hilly Landscape with Ravens, in the Bernese Oberland", painted around 1910. The oil paint has been applied with great, visible gusto here, almost a frenzy to catch the scene, really. Editor: It hits me first as a surprisingly cheerful piece. All that bright, rolling green under the enormous sky—and not at all what I think I associate with the artist. There’s a deceptive simplicity about it, like a children’s book illustration… Curator: Deceptive is spot-on, I think. Hodler wasn't just slinging paint around for a pretty picture. He was deeply invested in this idea of parallelisms, seeing echoed patterns in nature and trying to capture them in paint. Look at the way the clouds are regimented and mirrored on the hills; a structured, thoughtful method at work. Editor: Yes, those echoed curves and diagonal sweeps give it a fascinating structure! And yet, there's this undercurrent of something else… a somber quality in that title. Are those ravens actually there? I only see dark accents that could also be trees...or just markings. Curator: Ah, that's the Hodler ambiguity for you. Maybe they're implied; present as absence! Ravens have such symbolic weight, after all. It injects an interesting tension, doesn't it? Between this very 'alive' landscape and something more existential hovering just under the surface. The location certainly contributes; the Bernese Oberland has that intense beauty mingled with potential danger... Editor: Exactly. Hodler is doing more than capturing what the location looks like; he captures a *feeling* of a location. A premonition even. Well, the play between open brightness and lurking shadows leaves quite the lasting impression. I find myself contemplating a great range of possible meanings... Curator: Well said! And the very nature of the artistic intervention here, which doesn’t give away easily and stays with you as a riddle.