Lake Geneva from Chexbres 1904

Ferdinand Hodler gave us this big view of Lake Geneva from Chexbres, with paint, sometime before 1918. Just imagine Hodler with his brush, conjuring this scene out of blues and greens. You can feel him thinking about symmetry and repetition, like those clouds marching across the sky, mirrored by the distant mountains. The way he’s laid down the paint so smoothly makes the lake feel vast and still, almost like glass. But then there's this little zigzag of a path on the right—a dash of human touch against all that nature. I bet Hodler stood there, feeling small yet connected to it all, just trying to capture the way light hits the water and the air feels so crisp. It makes you wonder, what did he see? What did he want us to see? It reminds me of other painters, like maybe some of the Hudson River School guys, trying to nail down the sublime.