The case
Swiss collector pays 7.4 million francs for Hodler painting.
Source: SDA & Koller
The commentary
A painting by Ferdinand Hodler has fetched 7.4 million Swiss francs. ‘Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc in the Early Morning’ was bought by a Swiss collector. The buyer is a private Swiss collector. The work, ‘Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc in the Early Morning, March’ from 1918, is one of Hodler’s most important works.
The painting was created in the last months of his life and shows Lake Geneva with a view of Mont Blanc. Hodler dissolved the landscape to the point of abstraction – a style that characterised his late phase. The painting has only ever had three owners. Immediately after Hodler’s death in 1918, it came into the possession of the Moos Gallery in Geneva, where it was acquired by the Swiss collector Arthur Stoll. After his death in the early 1990s, the work was transferred to a renowned Swiss private collection.