Tobia Bezzola

The book, which was published on the occasion of the exhibition: “Ferdinand Hodler. Landscapes”, is divided into four main sections: Prolog; Nature; Mountains; Lakes; which in turn are subdivided. Each section and division opens with a very brief introduction of a page or two or text which is followed by a series of full page colour plates. The book concludes with a short essay: Landscape as Consensus Formula; a fully illustrated (thumbnails predominately in colour) Catalogue of Exhibited Works; a Biography; Notes and a Bibliography. There are three further essays to be found in the book: the opening “Holder Landscapes”; “Ferdinand Holder – Organized Nature”; and “The Sketched Landscape”.

Illustrations predominate in this fine publication: 120 in colour plus 30 black and white, the latter includes drawings and period photographs, the former repeats in the Catalogue section in the form of thumbnails. The essays, which are illustrated in black and white, are very informative. The plates are well presented, sensibly sized on the page, although the landscape format pictures do not fair quite so well on the portrait proportion page; the colours are rich and the images crisp and clean. There are several full page bleed illustrations showing a close-up of a selected painting which clearly reveal the brush work and texture of the paint surface. Altogether a very attractive publication.… (meer)