Art News

Kunsthaus Zürich restores important monumental painting by Ferdinand Hodler

ZURICH.- Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1919), one of the most significant Swiss painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, created two versions of his important composition ‘The Truth,’ both of which are held in the Kunsthaus Zürich. Now the first version is to be restored. Powerful yet subtle, this key work in Hodler’s oeuvre is set to be rediscovered and, from 2013, will be displayed alongside the second version. Measuring 196 x 273 cm, the monumental first version of the oil painting ‘The Truth’ was created in 1902. It comes from the Alfred Rütschi Collection and was loaned to the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1918. Later, in 1929, Rütschi’s heirs donated it to the Kunsthaus. The work is the subject of a major restoration project which is now getting under way. Hodler painted a second, more strongly stylized version of ‘The Truth’ in 1903 for the exhibition at the Vienna Secessio