ABSTRACT
The reference here is of course based on the 'correspondence' between colours and sounds which is an essential part of the symbolist attitude. Life is a renewal of an old symbolist theme in which details of costume, expression and the foliage of the central tree of life seem to intrude so that the rendering of appearance disturbs the synthetist rendering of the underlying idea, and imitation has interfered with symbolist correspondence. Hodler employs the visible world as intermediary, instead of allowing the work to speak directly of the invisible. Because he never relinquishes illusionistic reference, he also forgoes any truly symbolist correspondence. Finally, Hodler's self-conscious groups belong to the intellectual realm of allegory. Although this is not a self-portrait, being inspired by the love agonies of a friend, its emotion has intimate roots in his own experience but, as with Gauguin, the intended overtones, the symbolist suggestions, reach far beyond the personal.
