Successful series

In endless succession

Hodler painted The Woodcutter in three sizes and 18 variations. There are various reasons why the artist copied his own works. It was possible to use these so-called replicas to test a variation and further develop the motif while working on another painting. But replicas also make economic sense: they can be produced much quicker than the first version, for which the motif has to be worked out from scratch, and they can be done at any time in the studio independently of a model or weather conditions. After all, as the success increased, Hodler came under time pressure to produce; and new works could be sold in no time.

In his enthusiastic article, Louis Baudit mentions the presentation of the «famous Woodcutter» at the Miethke Gallery in Vienna and at the same time defends the artist against that criticism that he was producing mass goods for the market. This critic emerged because increasingly Hodler was painting more extensive series of the same motif. His artist colleague Cunot Amiet wrote to Giovanni Giacometti: «He’s beginning to copy himself, like a monkey.» Yet although there are almost twenty versions of it, The Woodcutter is not Hodler’s most extensive series. There are no les than thirty versions of the Stockhornkette mit Thunersee (Lake Thun with Stockhorn Mountain Chain).

Both the high prices—Hodler was asking 15,000 francs for a Woodcutter in 1911—and the multi-part series made it attractive and easy to smuggle fakes onto the art market. As early as 1912 Ferdinand Hodler had to testify as a witness in a trial about a fake Woodcutter. The many variations also led to mistakes, but in no way did they impede the success of TheWoodcutter.