Spring, c. 1913

The 19th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession, held in 1904, was dedicated to the Swiss Symbolist Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918). Koloman Moser (1868–1918) was responsible for the selection of works and the exhibition design together with Carl Moll (1861–1945). Years later, in early April 1913, Moser visited Hodler in Geneva. Having refreshed his memory of the works Hodler had exhibited in Vienna, Moser created the work Spring after his return. The painting reveals parallels with Hodler’s in terms of motif and composition, which are also reflected in the choice of title. Like in Hodler’s 1901 work Spring, Moser’s painting, too, shows stylized landscape elements as the backdrop for a scenery which appears to play out on a different plane of reality. The figure of the youth has been placed into a bright, abstract plane which emphasizes the distinctive silhouette of his body. The body already boasts the auratically flaming contour with which Moser would typically surround his figures from 1913.

Text Leopold Museum