Brown brush and India ink over pencil on ivory-coloured wove paper with watermark "P.M.FABBRIANO" 44.2 x 58.2 cm, framed under glass. Stamped signature "Ferd. Hodler" (not recorded by Lugt) lower right and the embossed stamp "SUCCESSION FERD. HODLER" with the no. "48" inscribed therein in pencil lower left. - Professionally smoothed folds from formerly folded wide margins surrounding the composition.
Rau Collection for UNICEF
In his confirmation for Christie's, dated 29 April 1981, Hans A. Lüthy from the Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (Swiss Institute for Art Research) related this drawing to the study "Selbstbildnis-Studie III für die Lithographie von 1916" (quoted from Christie's, op.cit., p. 52; Künstlerlexikon der Schweiz, op.cit., p. 450). Hodler created the lithograph of his self-portrait in order to satisfy an increased collector's demand. It was included in the April and May 1916 issue for subscribers of the Geneva art magazine "Pages d'Art" (cat. rais., op.cit. p. 306, illus. 3).
Compared to the paintings created in 1916, especially the two self-portraits in the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, are somewhat similar (see cat. rais., op.cit. 974, 975).
Provenance
Kornfeld und Klipstein, Bern, Auction 147, 20 June 1973, lot 337
Literature
cf. Künstlerlexikon der Schweiz XX. Jahrhundert, Frauenfeld 1958-1961, p. 450, no. 10; cf. Oskar Bätschmann/Monika Brunner/Bernadette Walter, Ferdinand Hodler, Catalogue raisonné der Gemälde, vol. 2, die Bildnisse, p. 306 ff.
Exhibitions
Christie's London, Impressionist and Modern Watercolours and Drawings, Auction 30 June 1981, lot 161 with illus. p. 52