Study for Day (Truth)
Ferdinand Hodler (Swiss, 1853-1918)
1896/98
- Medium
- Graphite with smudging on cream wove paper, squared for transfer
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 28.6 × 28.6 cm (11 5/16 × 11 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Switzerland
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Print and Drawing Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The artist’s wife, Berthe Jacques, served as the model for this preliminary study for the Art Institute’s painting Day (Truth). Hodler would often have his models pose behind a wooden frame with a grid of threads stretched across it—a method first described by the artist Albrecht Dürer in the 16th century. This allowed Hodler to accurately check the subject’s proportions and measurements against the drawing, which was also outlined with a grid.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
