Portrait of Willy Russ - Ferdinand Hodler
Archival giclée
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Description
A 1914 portrait by Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler, featuring the subject Willy Russ against a flat, ochre background, executed in the artist's signature style of structural clarity.
Ferdinand Hodler, a central figure in Swiss art at the turn of the twentieth century, painted this portrait of Willy Russ in 1914. The work displays the artist's characteristic approach to portraiture, which often prioritised structural clarity and a rhythmic arrangement of forms over purely naturalistic representation. Hodler was known for his theory of 'parallelism', a method that sought to impose order and symmetry upon the subject, creating a sense of balance that permeates the composition.
The subject, Willy Russ, is depicted in a seated position against a flat, ochre-toned background. His dark, double-breasted suit provides a stark contrast to the warm, uniform colour of the wall behind him. Hodler employs a controlled palette, allowing the focus to remain on the sitter's facial features and posture. The hands, resting on the knees, are rendered with a degree of simplification that aligns with the artist's broader stylistic tendencies during this period. The brushwork is deliberate, avoiding unnecessary texture to maintain the clean, graphic quality of the image.
This portrait captures the austere elegance often associated with Hodler's later works. By removing extraneous detail, the artist directs the viewer's attention to the psychological presence of the sitter. The composition is anchored by the vertical axis of the figure, while the horizontal lines of the lower section provide a stable base. This work reflects the artist's ability to synthesise observation with a personal aesthetic system, resulting in a representation that feels both immediate and carefully constructed. It remains a clear example of how Hodler utilised colour and line to define space and character within the constraints of a traditional portrait format.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Portrait of Willy Russ - Ferdinand Hodler
Artist Biography
Ferdinand Hodler
He studied under Barthelemy Menn in Geneva, absorbing influences from Courbet and Holbein that seem contradictory but make sense in his work: physical realism combined with formal symmetry. By the 1890s he had developed Parallelism, a system of compositional repetition where figures, gestures and landscape elements mirror each other across the canvas. He described it as an element of order inherent in nature, visible in reflections on water, in the symmetry of the human body, in the repetition of mountain forms.
The Swiss National Bank commissioned him in 1908 to design currency. Rather than portraits of statesmen, he chose a woodcutter for the 50-franc note and a reaper for the 100-franc note. Both entered circulation in 1911. His figures occupy Swiss banknotes the way his figures occupy his paintings: monumental, frontal, and slightly too symmetrical to be comfortable.
His son Hector founded the World Esperanto Association in 1908, which is a detail that belongs in the biography of any artist whose life's work concerned the search for universal order. Hodler was Switzerland's first modern painter, and the one who proved you could stay in Switzerland and still matter. He died in Geneva in 1918, having painted the view of Lake Geneva from his window every day during his final illness. The series of paintings recording the changing light over the lake is among his most moving work.
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