Motif
A Hodler in your wallet
As of the year 1908, Ferdinand Hodler designed the first 50 and 100 Swiss franc banknotes for the recently inaugurated National Bank: from 1911 to 1958 every Swiss person had a Hodler in their wallet.
First national banknotes
The Swiss National Bank was set up in 1905. As of that date, it was the only bank entitled to have banknotes printed. One of its first important tasks was to issue a regular unified series of banknotes, for which a commission of experts was appointed.
In 1908 Robert Comtesse, a member of the Swiss Federal Council, asked Ferdinand Hodler if he was willing to do “one or two drawings”. The respective motif was to link technical quality with national character and artistic value.
Hodler presented a sketch of a reaper for the 100 franc note, thus initiating a more than one year-long tug of war with the commission regarding the motif. The commission wanted a wine grower for the 50 franc note, but Hodler suggested a woodcutter. He did countless drafts, worked with a younger and an older model, making him fell trees in beech and fir woodland. Hodler also worked with photographs of his drawings in order to further elaborate the motif. For this he used prints in both the original size of the drawing and in the banknote format. Even though The Woodcutter did not fully convince all the commission members, in this case a solution was reached more quickly than with the reaper. Hodler took the requirement for it to be forgery-proof into account by designing a structured sky with clouds.
When the two banknotes came into circulation in late 1911 they incurred considerable criticism. Hodler himself was dissatisfied with how the figures were realized on the banknotes and dissociated himself from them.
“And while I’m still writing, I would also like to you ask if you are thinking of rendering the verso of your 100 franc design as a painting, and if so, what approximate price would you eventually be willing to let me have it for?”
Theodor Reinhart to Ferdinand Hodler, 11.03.1909
From Wallet to Wall
As early as March 1909, Theodor Reinhart, a member of the banknote commission, asked Hodler if he would paint a version of The Reaper in oils. Shortly afterwards Reinhart expressed the wish to have a Woodcutter in oils as well.
Freed from the constraints of the banknote production, Hodler experimented with format and motif, changing from horizontal to upright format and elongating the figure somewhat. The swing of the axe was given more dynamism and seemed more dramatic. The woodcutter strikes with such momentum that his foot leaves the ground. The tree in question takes over the diagonal of the axe. The motif became one of Hodler’s most popular pictorial inventions. Soon, more Woodcutters followed in which the landscape, the season of the year and also the facial expression varied.