Today Sotheby’s Switzerland unveils an exhibition of selected works by Ferdinand Hodler, to mark the centenary of the artist’s death. To coincide with shows at numerous museums and institutions in honour of the painter’s work, Sotheby’s Swiss Art specialists have chosen to highlight his mastery in the field of figurative work and portraiture. This carefully curated group of works, which explores a very important aspect of this key Swiss artist’s oeuvre, is on view in Zurich on 11-12 April and in Geneva on 18-19 April.
Speaking ahead of the exhibition, Stéphanie Schleining and Urs Lanter , co-heads of Sotheby’s Swiss Art Department, commented, “We are thrilled to be able to invite collectors and art-lovers to our Zurich and Geneva galleries to discover 14 highly interesting works which bring together each of the most important elements of Hodler’s style.”
The exhibition comprises selected works available for immediate purchase via private sale, while others will be offered during the upcoming auction Swiss Art / Swiss Made on 5 June in Zurich.
Sotheby’s leads the auction market for Swiss Art, and holds biannual sales in Zurich in June and December. This dynamic market is attracting greater and greater participation from international collectors; the past four sales saw registrations to bid from 18 countries.
Sotheby’s holds the world auction record for a work by Ferdinand Hodler, which was set in 2007 when the stunning Lake Geneva landscape Der Genfersee von Saint-Prex aus sold for CHF 10,912,000. More recently, in December 2017, a beautiful winter landscape featuring Lake Thun and the Stockhorn mountain, Thunersee mit Stockhornkette im Winter, was purchased for CHF 4.3 million, helping to drive the auction to a total of CHF 8 million, the highest total at Sotheby’s for the category in three years. Auction sales of Swiss Art in 2017 totalled CHF 13.1 million.
