Ferdinand Hodler’s Woodcutter — we all have an image of it in our mind’s eye. But of which one? The one in the collection of the Kunstmuseum Luzern, or in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, or the one to be seen behind varying Federal Councils? Hodler originally designed the motif for the new 50 franc note in 1908. When he then painted a large number of Woodcutters between 1909 and 1913 critics claimed that the artist was producing just for the market. Yet this in no way diminished the popularity of the motif, and by 1912 the first forgeries began to appear.

Today the Woodcutter is one of the most famous of Hodler’s motifs. The powerful male figure serves as a symbol of strength, earthiness, resilience, in a word, Switzerland, and is readily availed of for political objectives. The central figure of the woodcutter scarcely differs in the various versions. However the backgrounds do; the season, the light conditions and the colour of the shadows change.