"Day", fragment

1899

Ferdinand Hodler Swiss, 1853-1918

Not On View

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Between 1892 and 1899, Ferdinand Hodler explored ideas in drawings, sketches, and paintings for a large-scale mural composition titled Day. In that monumental work –– which Hodler realized in four versions –– a group of five nude female figures in an expansive but spare, light-infused landscape create an image of the renewal of life at the break of each day. This painting is a fragment of the first version of Day (now partially destroyed), which Hodler completed in 1899 and then followed with three variants. The woman turns to her left to shield her eyes from the light in a classical gesture of awakening from sleep. An examination of the canvas revealed that it was cut on three sides. After Hodler separated this painting from other parts of the composition, he modified it to be able to sell it as an independent work: he painted over body parts of the neighboring figures, which are still partly visible on the right and the left of the image.

Title "Day", fragment

Artwork Date 1899

Artist Ferdinand Hodler

Life Dates 1853-1918

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Swiss

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 41 7/8 × 39 3/8 inches (106.4 × 100 cm) Framed: 49 3/8 × 46 13/16 × 1 1/2 inches (125.4 × 118.9 × 3.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 1988.65

Markings

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Provenance

1921, (Gallery Neupert, Zürich, Switzerland);
(Gallery Thannhauser, Munich, Germany);
1988, (Bruno Meissner, Zürich, Switzerland);
1988-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Hodler Gedächtnis-Ausstellung, Bern, 1921. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Bern. p. 28, no. 305. [lent by Gallery Neupert, Zürich.]

Müller, W.Y. Die Kunst Ferdinand Hodlers Reife und Spätwerk 1895-1918. vol. 2. Zürich, 1941, p. 480, no. 51. [as ca. 1900.]

Bulletin of the DIA 65, no. 2/3 (1989): p. 12 (fig. 8).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Ferdinand Hodler, "Day", fragment, 1899, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 1988.65.