On the Banks of the Manzanares - Ferdinand Hodler
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Description
A study of the Manzanares river in Madrid, painted by Ferdinand Hodler in 1878, capturing the quiet atmosphere of the riverbank with earthy tones.
Ferdinand Hodler painted this work during his formative years in Madrid, where he travelled in 1878. The composition captures the Manzanares river with a direct, observational approach that differs from his later, highly stylised Symbolist works. The scene focuses on the bare, skeletal forms of trees lining the riverbank, their branches reaching into a pale, expansive sky. In the background, the stone arches of a bridge span the water, providing a sense of scale and distance to the quiet, urban periphery.
Hodler employs a muted palette of earthy browns, ochres, and soft blues, reflecting the specific light of the Spanish capital. The brushwork is relatively loose, suggesting a quick, plein-air execution intended to record the immediate visual experience of the location. The trees dominate the foreground, their trunks providing a vertical anchor against the horizontal lines of the river and the distant bridge. This painting offers a glimpse into the artist's early development, showing his technical proficiency in capturing light and atmosphere before he moved toward the rhythmic, symmetrical compositions that defined his mature career.
The work remains a clear example of his early interest in natural observation. By focusing on the structural elements of the trees and the calm flow of the water, Hodler creates a balanced view of the riverbank. The absence of human figures emphasises the stillness of the setting, allowing the viewer to focus on the interplay between the organic forms of the vegetation and the man-made architecture of the bridge. This print preserves the texture of the original oil application, maintaining the character of the artist's early brushwork.
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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
On the Banks of the Manzanares - 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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